Midnight's Story
by Farla
Summary: A girl named Midnight goes out to be a trainer. She meets Mewtwo who she tries to catch. He doesn't like that so he decides to let her see how pokemon feel about being caught and trained firsthand.This is not an original trainer story.
1. Midnight of Nightshade

Midnight smiled happily

No, I don't own pokemon. In fact, I don't own any show you see on TV, or even any copyrighted thing in existence as far as I know. I do own Midnight and her town, Nightshade.

Chapter One

Unexpected Encounter

Midnight smiled happily. Today her parents had allowed her to get her pokemon. Unlike most trainers, she would not be receiving a pre-caught and tamed pokemon. In her town, Nightshade, most trainers went out to find their main pokemon. Some took loaned pokemon with them for the capture, but most, like Midnight, did not. The area had many rare pokemon for some reason, and most trainers could find a pokemon that best fit them. 

Midnight hiked into the woods. She saw spearow, pidgey, caterpie, sandshrews, and a manky. None of these pokemon had any appeal to her. She knew their evolved forms, but was only a bit more interested. Fearows were overly aggressive. Pidgeot was nice, but she wasn't much interested. Getting a butterfree made her pause, but she wanted a stronger pokemon then the slow, winged bug. She had learned that its wings could be damaged easily in battle, too. Sandslash weren't very interesting, and Primeape was not something she wanted to train, not liking fighting type pokemon much.

According to the tradition of Nightshade, the first pokemon you saw that you liked you tried to catch, and it would be your main pokemon. Sometimes trainers who wanted a strong pokemon would catch a few others first, but she didn't think that was fair.

What pokemon _did_ she want? An eevee would be nice, especially one that would evolve into a umbreon or espeon. Sneasle were interesting, and a challenge to raise as so little was known about them. She would love a houndour, having liked the pokemon for years. She liked golducks, and was partial to psyducks. Lapras, Marril or horsea would be nice. A gyarados would be wonderful. Natu or a staru would be fine. Because of the many pokemon she liked, Midnight had decided to get the first one she found. And if she happened to see a legendary pokemon like Lugia, she would chase it to the ends of the earth!

Midnight was so deep in thought she did not pay attention. She tripped on a rock and fell over the edge of the huge chasm. Screaming, she fell towards the far-away bottom. 

Opening her eyes, she realized she had stopped falling. A blue glow surrounded her and she was lifted out.

Landing on the ground, she looked at the pokemon who had just saved her. "What are you?" she said as she whipped out her pokedex. "No available data" it said.

[I am Mewtwo, the clone of mew. Are you all right?] asked the large white and purple pokemon.

"Cool. An unknown pokemon! Pokeball, go!" she yelled.

Raising his hand/paw, Mewtwo exploded the pokeball in midair. [I save your life and you repay me by trying to enslave me?] he said incredulous.

"Pokemon are meant to be captured and used for battle." Midnight replied.

Mewtwo looked at her. [Perhaps you should be made to see things differently. I was created by that same arrogance, the idea that pokemon are meant for nothing but humans.]

"What do you mean?" Midnight said, a little afraid.

The super pokemon did not reply, but only narrowed his eyes, which were now glowing blue. Midnight felt funny. 

"What are you doing?" she said desperately.

[Some pokemon no longer exist. It upsets the balance and causes problems. Perhaps this will give you a different view on things.]

The change completed, Midnight fell to the ground and Mewtwo teleported away. Before she fainted, she thought she heard him say, [There were never supposed to be three, but the other two were greatly feared. Five as the evo, without one all would suffer. Balance through the-] before darkness claimed her.

Well, what did you think so far? If you are wondering what is going on, here's a hint- evo isn't the name of any pokemon as far as I know. Mewtwo is referring to something very like that, though. Can you guess what pokemon it is?

Just out of curiosity, are the three legendary creatures (like entei) cats or dogs? I would like to know if Nintendo said anything about it.


	2. The Stranger in the Mirror

This story uses copyrighted characters of which I do not own(DUH

This story uses copyrighted characters of which I do not own(**DUH!**). In the _very_ unlikely event someone who actually owns them reads this, don't sue. This is like free advertisement for pokemon, so I don't see why anyone cares.

* is pokespeach.
* [] is a pokemon talking in that weird way like entei in the third movie, which I think is telepathic speech. A clearer way is that it is a pokemon talking that humans can understand . 

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  * This means thoughts.

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What happened? thought Midnight. _What was that weird pokemon?_

Midnight lifted herself up and started to stand up. Then she realized that she was already standing fine on four feet. Looking down, she saw a black paw where her arm should have been.

__

There were never supposed to be three, but the other two were greatly feared. Five as the evo, without one all would suffer. Balance through the-

What did that mean? Three what? What are evo? Most importantly, balance through what?

And what am I?

Midnight started to walk back to her town. At first it was hard, but she got the hang of her legs surprisingly quick. She soon felt confident enough to run.

Racing along the path, Midnight realized that she was moving far too fast. _Maybe whatever pokemon I am is just a really good runner, _she thought hopefully. _Like a rapidash or something._

Clinging to that thought, she sped into town.

"What is that?"

"Looks like that legendary pokemon, suicune!"

"Suicune isn't black, stupid!"

"You know what I mean! It looks like one. Color doesn't matter!"

"Looks more like a umbreon"

"Since when are umbreon that big?"

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People! Panic raced through Midnight _Wait, why am I so scared?_

I'll deal with this later. Maybe Prof. Hemlock can help.

Midnight sped towards the pokemon reserve and lab.

* * *

[Prof. Hemlock!] called Midnight. [Prof., Hemlock I need to talk to you!]

"Who-what are you?" said Prof. Hemlock, coming out of his house "And what are you doing here?"

[I don't really know]

Hemlock stared at Midnight in shock and disbelief. "Maybe you should come in." he said.

Walking in, Midnight saw her reflection in the mirror. Stopping, she stared in surprise at the stranger. She was black, her body like a suicune or umbreon. She had markings like an umbreon, save that they disappeared completely when she tried to dull them, and glowed bright when she told then to. On her back rose dark wings, which she twitched experimentally.

"Come along," called Prof. Hemlock, and Midnight followed him.

So, does anyone have any guesses to what evo are? How about what Midnight is now?


	3. Masterball

Despite the fact I am writing about pokemon, I do not own them

Despite the fact I am writing about pokemon, I do not own them. That is why this is called fanfiction, because it is stories written about the show/book/movie/cartoon strip/ etc. that we like but do not own (otherwise this is what would be happening ON the show). And may I add, **DUH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!**

According to the reviews, the legendary things are dogs. And entei and raikou do look like dogs. However, since I don't think dog is all that good to describe a very wild creature that runs away so it won't be caught, I'm calling them wolves. 

"I'm going to go to the library to see if I can find out what you are. I think I've seen you before." said Prof. Hemlock once they were inside. "Stay."

__

What does he think I am, a growlith? thought Midnight, annoyed by his command, but she didn't move. She was **very** tired and tried to lie down and go to sleep, but she was too scared. Oddly, she felt more worried about Hemlock and his assistant, who's smell was clear, then she did about the fact she was turned into something, something that was probably a pokemon.

Pacing back and forth, her streamer-like tail lashing, she tried to reason with her fears. _I'm just overreacting. I'm so scared I'm getting spooked by normal things. Besides, I've never smelled humans before, so I might just need time to get used to it._

After what seemed like an eternity, Prof. Hemlock came back, holding a huge book. "I think I've found your species," he said, opening it to a vague picture, without much detail and the colors blurring. It was also dark, and the creature was half-veiled in shadow, so the picture was mostly worthless, but it had the same basic proportions as Midnight, and the wings coming out it's back were the same.

[what do you know about it?] she asked.

"Although I couldn't find it's name, it was the connector between the legendary birds and the legendary wolves, the connector between the air and land, much as Lugia is the connector between the air and sea. Without it, the legendary wolves and the legendary birds separated. It was killed, supposedly, by people, for the crime of being a dark-type pokemon. Many people hated dark-types back then. But seeing as you are here right now, that part of the legend is clearly untrue."

Prof. Hemlock smiled "But further research will need to be conducted. If you are the same one, then the legend is may be discredited. But if you are reborn, it will be irrefutable proof for of the theory of reoccurrence vs new evolutions!" he said excitedly "Not to mention that no legendary pokemon has ever been caught and studied. I will be the most renowned researcher ever! Even bigger then the legendary Prof. Oak! Do the legendary wolves really have the abilities to alter their surroundings? And this is new insight to the many rare pokemon that exist here! If I could find out what drew you here, I might discover what draws many rare pokemon here! I might even find a way to force rare pokemon to appear in certain areas!" by now, Prof. Hemlock was raving.

Midnight took a step back. She had no wish to be studied![I have to leave now] she said nervously. 

"You aren't going anywhere!" shouted Prof. Hemlock, reaching into his pocket. Midnight could guess what he had. He pulled out a masterball.

Ah, the masterball. The very best ball available. Given only to pokemon researchers and, on very rare occasion, trainers. The Holy Grail for any pokemon trainer, and the ultimate nightmare for any pokemon: a pokeball that could catch any pokemon without fail.

Although her mind had no intention of being caught, she could have tried to explain that she was really a human. But her instincts took over. At the sight of that tiny soon-to-be-cage, she bolted like a spooked rapidash.

Can anyone guess what evo are yet? If anyone is wondering why Prof. Hemlock is acting like this, the answer is in his name. See if you can guess it.


	4. Thoughts

Just read my last 3 disclaimers, OK

Just read my last 3 disclaimers, OK?

Pikajenn is correct. Although hemlock the tree is not poisonous, hemlock the plant is. Both are connected to poison. I got the idea from my mother, who is **really** into plants and animals, as well as mythology.

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Why did the masterball scare me so badly? thought Midnight franticly, but without slowing down. _Pokemon get captured all the time. It's natural. Pokemon don't mind, or feel scared of it._

Finally, she slowed and stopped. Panting, she tried to figure out what had happened. The only thing she could think of was that she had overreacted because of all the stress and had gotten scared. The fact that she was a human, and didn't want to be caught only must have made it worse.

__

Still, what I felt when I saw that masterball…I never felt that scared in my life.

Unable to find an answer, she shoved the thought out of her mind. It was replaced by another, far more insistent one. _Weren't legendary pokemon supposed to be able to become human?_

If I could do that I could return to my normal life…

Sighing, she resolved to think more on that later. She lay down and tried to sleep, but yet another thought badgered her. _Legendary wolves…there were 3 of them. For a long time, there were only 3 legendary birds, but ho-oh was awoken by the coming of the legendary Ash Ketchem, and lugia awakened when the other 3 birds were attacked, making five…_One thing Midnight have never been able to understand was why the legendary birds had two of the same element. According to something she had heard once, it was because they didn't have conflicting types. Articuno, and zapdos both had elements that conflicted with their flying portions- ice and electric. _But that didn't explain lugia not having another like it, so that theory doesn't make much sense. And what were evo? It sounded kind of like eevee and evolution…Wait! There were once thought to be three eevee evolutions, but two more were discovered. The first three eevee evolutions were water, electric and fire, the first three birds were ice, electric and fire, and the first three wolves were water, electric and fire! Then there was espeon, a psychic type, and lugia, a psychic type, and umbreon a dark type, and whatever I am is, in legend, a dark type…so is there a dark-type bird and a psychic-type wolf?_

Midnight sighed again, drove all thoughts from her mind, and went to sleep. She would think on this tomorrow.

Yeah, very little has happened in this chapter. Sorry. It was necessary to start to pull the story together. There is foreshadowing on what will happen next, though.

Any guesses as to what's going on so far? As you may have noticed, the TV characters (Ash and Prof. Oak) have completed much of their work/dream. They are both **very** famous. However, I'm not sure exactly how long after the TV show this is yet 

Oh, can anyone explain why there are two birds of fire? The only explanation I or anyone I asked could think of was that maybe they were trying to make up for how weak moltres was.


	5. Hints of past, and a trainer

[] now means pokemon speech

[] now means pokemon speech.

Midnight awoke as dawn was breaking on the horizon. Despite sleeping on the ground, spending most of yesterday running, and being in a new, unknown body, she felt happy and well rested.

She had just had the strangest dream…

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Running…others with me…winged ones above, four legged beside me…a voice, a voice in my head…which is stronger, they fight, want to prove, can't stop fighting…

Shaking the dream out of here head, she started thinking ._What should I do know?_ She thought to herself. _I guess I should go try to find some other legendary pokemon. Now that I am a pokemon, maybe I'll have better luck then a human would. They should be able to answer my questions, and will no doubt be able to change me back to a normal person._

With that in mind, she walked off.

Passing a bunch of pidgey, she heard one say, it's voice filled with awe, [That looks like the legendary wolf of the night! It was killed long ago, how can it be here?]

__

I can…understand pokemon now? But…I couldn't do that yesterday…Midnight felt confused. 

Midnight walked over to the pidgey, who seemed to tremble. The others flew away, scared. [Do you know what my name is?] she asked, curious.

[N-no, I-I just heard of you-my father, h-he told me about y-you] it stammered.

[What did he tell you?]

[He-he said that you-you were the goddess of the night, and the legendary birds considered you as one of them as well. But-but he said that you were dead, that the slavers killed you.]

[The…slavers?]

[The-the humons, the slavers call themselves hu-mons.]

[What!] said Midnight, shocked. The pidgey sensed her sudden agitation and decided to get away before the midnight goddess killed it. It didn't know what it had said, but the wolf was upset by it. One did not anger goddesses lightly. And this one was dead…

[I wonder why it was so scared?] said Midnight to herself as the pidgey flew away like it was being chased by a huge noctowl. [And it called humans…slavers.]

Sighing, she traveled on. The pokemon who saw her fled like they had seen a ghost. To them, they had. The pokemon's ancestors had heard of her death. It was not a legend. She had died, and now she was back.

Midday was approaching. It got hot, and Midnight had been traveling fast. She lay down in the shade of a large tree. It felt so good, to just stretch out on the ground and let the heat roll off her body. Suddenly, her keen ears picked up the sound of someone coming. They were human. She knew this instinctively, by the sounds they made. They moved clumsily through the area. Her immediate thought was to flee, but her instincts were dulled by the heat and comfort of lying there, and her mind told her she had nothing to fear. She was a human, after all. She would just explain her situation to the person. Besides, the legendary pokemon were said to be almost impossible to catch. As long as they didn't have a masterball, she had nothing to fear from a person. And what trainer would have a masterball?

She lay there, and presently a boy came along. 

"Wow, that must be what Prof. Hemlock was talking about!" he said happily. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his new masterball.

"Masterball, go!" he yelled, throwing to ball at her.

The ball hit her, and she was sucked in. Screaming and struggling, she tried to escape, although her mind told her it was futile. No pokemon could escape a masterball!

She heard a dull ting.

__

No! I won't be caught! I won't be trapped! her mind screamed as she redoubled her efforts to escape. Although a tiny part of her wondered where the thoughts were coming from-after all, when he released her she could just explain and have him let he go, it was completely ignored as she writhed within the ball, terrified at being trapped. 

__

I have to get out!

The ball burst open.

"What in the world…?" said the boy as he caught the masterball.

Midnight knew she should run, but she was so tired…The effort of escaping from the masterball had left her with barely enough energy to stand. The unknown boy threw the masterball again, and she was trapped.

Cliffhanger endings are so annoying, aren't they? Sorry, but I'm not finished on what happens next.

Does everyone get what has happened so far?


	6. Training

From now on, * will be thoughts

From now on, * will be thoughts. See if you can figure out what is happening.

Pikajenn was close on who caught Midnight. Remember, Ash is legendary. He probably wouldn't be around her small town.

The boy looked at his new pokemon. "Prof. Hemlock never told me to give him the pokemon when I caught it…" he said quietly, thinking. "And he doesn't treat pokemon well anyway. It would probably just run away again. I'll keep it!"

He held the masterball tightly in his hand.

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…fighting…the highter's fighting…they were the chosen of all pokemon…they were tearing the pokemon apart…chaos…

*Stop it!* she screamed voicelessly. But they didn't. Because she wasn't there. Because she had failed.

"Pokeball, go!" called the boy.

[Who are you?] "Mid, mid, midnight?"

"So, you're a midnight? My name is Ashura, or Ash for short. My parents named me after the legendary Ash Ketchem, pokemon master and catcher of all the pokemon but the legendary bird Ho-oh, and the legendary wolves," he said proudly. "What attacks do you know?'

[I don't…remember] she whispered.

He seemed to understand this. "Well, can you try to knock over that tree?"

Midnight ran over and Headbutted the tree. It shuddered, cracked and fell.

"Wow, that's a pretty strong headbutt attack. Try scratching it."

They continued for a while seeing what attacks Midnight knew. She couldn't do any special attacks, but knew physical ones: headbutt, scratch, slash, stomp, cut, slam, body slam, defense curl, double kick, double slap, fury attack, fury swipes, guillotine, hyper fang, lick, low kick, pound, quick attack, rollout, sand attack, strength, tackle, takedown, fury cutter, metal claw, extreme speed, flail, bite, steel wing, gust and wing attack.

Ash had a list of attacks, abet not complete, and he used it to check what she could do.

"Your attacks are all super-strong, but I think you need to work of the strength of your wings. Can you use fly?"

Midnight shook her head.

"Try then."

Midnight pumped her wings. [I don't know how to fly] she said quietly.

"Come on, Midnight, you can do it. Once you use fly, your wings will get stronger," Ash said soothingly.

Her wings beat harder until she lifted off the ground. She flew up higher. Midnight smiled. She was finally getting the hang of this!

"Midnight, come down. You should try to land now, before you get tired. You're already tired form all your attacks," said Ash nervously.

Obediently, Midnight flew down. Landing was harder then it seemed. She skimmed over the ground but was going too fast. She wasn't sure how to slow down. She started running across the ground, slowing down like that, but she was still going very, very fast.

Tired from her afternoon of practicing attacks, she stumbled on a stone.

Midnight fell on her side, one wing crumpled under her, and she skidded about a hundred feet before stopping. Her wing was broken and torn. She howled in pain.

"Oh no! Midnight!" yelled Ash. "Return!" He spun, and raced for the nearest pokecenter.

If anyone is wondering why Midnight knows so many attacks, there is a reason, I'm not just making it up pointlessly. Yes, no pokemon but mew can learn that many attacks (I think), but Midnight is…special.

Can anyone guess why Midnight is obeying the trainer and hasn't even tried to explain that she isn't a pokemon? Or why she could talk and understand pokespeach in the last chapter?


	7. Battle with the enemy

The newest chapter is here

The newest chapter is here. Yes, it is still confusing, and no, it won't get any better soon.

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Burning…they were going to burn her…she could see the pyre they made for her…she couldn't escape-her legs were chained, her wings broken. And she couldn't tell them to stop-they had ripped her throat out. They were sealing their own doom. The flames licked her and she screamed in pain and sorrow.

"Here you go!" said the overly cheerful nurse.

"Chancy!" added the far too perky Chancy.

"Thanks. Will her wing be OK?" asked Ash nervously.

" Many pokemon damage their wings early on. We have many special potions for healing them, so don't worry. But **do** try to be more careful."

"Oh, I will!" said Ash empathetically. He left the pokecenter.

"Hey, wimp! What are **you** doing here?" called Andy. "Prof. Hemlock only gave out five pokemon licenses today, and you weren't one of them!"

"Well, he gave me a pokemon too, but-"

"Yeah, right. What did he give you, a magikarp?"

A smile played over Ash's face. "Not exactly. He gave me two pokemon-go!"

"Gyara!" it roared.

"And he also gave me-!"

"Umbre!"

Andy stared in shock at the two powerful, rare pokemon. "Hemlock gave you a…gyarados and umbreon!?!"

"Yep! He also gave me a masterball to see if I could catch this new, rare pokemon he had seen."

"Ha. Even if you could find it, which a pathetic loser like you couldn't, you couldn't catch it with a thousand masterballs and Lugia!"

"Oh really? I have 3 pokemon."

"You probably wasted the masterball on a _caterpie_. Why don't we battle. Your weakling against the pokemon I found!"

"Sure!"

Andy grabbed a pokeball. "Go!"

"Mag…mar!" called the pokemon.

"You caught a magmar? Good, but Midnight can bear it! Go!"

Midnight appeared in a flash of red light. "Midnight!" she called happily, before seeing the pokemon before her. Every muscle in her body went ridged.

[You…] she whispered.

"Magmar" it whimpered.

Ash pulled out his pokedex. "What the…the pokedex must have made a mistake…"

"No mistake, wuss! That magmar is level 96! No pokemon can beat it! Now your pokemon is…ha! Level 6!

Ash blinked. When he had caught he, she was level 5. "Wow, she went up a whole level just be practicing attacks?"

"You mean it was level 5! Man, what a weakling. Magmar- attack!"

[You…you were dead! I saw you die! How can you be here? No matter. You are too low level to beat me. Goddess or no, I **will** beat you.]

[**You will pay**] Midnight said, her voice filled with loathing. 

Ash and Andy were surprised by their pokemon's attitude toward each other, but weren't thrown off much.

"Magmar, use fire blast!"

"Midnight, use fly to dodge then come down attacking with headbutt!"

Midnight flew up, then dived down headfirst at the magmar

"Mag!" it groaned.

"Magmar, shake it off and use reflect! Don't let it touch you!"

"Use tackle!"

Magmar created a heat shield, and Midnight rammed into it. She screamed in pain as it Burned her.

[Weakling. I am old and you are new. You cannot match my powers.]

[Don't be so sure] Midnight growled.

"Ashura! Ashura, you caught it!" called Prof. Hemlock excitedly.

"I've gotta go. I don't want him interested in my magmar," said Andy before leaving quickly.

"I'm glad you caught it," said Hemlock. "Can I see it? Why didn't you call?" He walked towards Midnight.

She growled[I know you. You and your kind.]

Hemlock paused, but ignored the warning growl, walking closer.

Midnight backed up a step and reared up, beating her wings. [Get away from me!] she yelped. _If he took one more step…_Midnight felt a new attack growing in her.

Now in the reviews, I got a few people who think Midnight is only obeying a trainer because she thinks she needs help. I would like to remind all readers that Midnight could not understand pokemon when she was first changed. She has also not said, since she was captured, a single human word. There **is** a connection. Also, the explanation for why she hasn't spoke human should be clear. Is it because she can't or because she won't or because she has forgotten how? Please say on your reviews.


	8. Hemlock

Did anyone notice how in the last chapter Midnight's dream seemed connected to what had happened

Did anyone notice how in the last chapter Midnight's dream seemed connected to what had happened? How her wing was mangled and in the dream her wings were broken?

Did anyone notice that Ash (from the TV show) had caught all the legendary pokemon but Ho-oh and the wolves? Although I forgot to mention it, this also implies that he has caught Mew. So, maybe Mew**two** isn't very happy with him…

How many people can guess why I named Ash's rival Andy?

Prof. Hemlock took another step closer- and Midnight lunged for his throat.

Ash knocked Prof. Hemlock over an instant before Midnight's Bite would have closed on his neck.

"Midnight, easy. He won't hurt you…"

"What is the meaning of this?" Demanded Prof. Hemlock, not asking Ash but Midnight. He stood up.

"Mid midnight mid!" she said angrily. [I remember what your kind did!]

"Why won't you talk?"

"Prof., Midnight hasn't said a word in our language for as long as I've had her. She doesn't seem to be able to."

"Odd, it talked before…" Hemlock shook his head. "Anyway, I need it for research-"

Midnight lunged, knocking him over. She Growled angrily at him.

"No Midnight! Get off him!" said Ash.

Again Hemlock stood up. "Odd, there was a trainer named Midnight who left today. What a strange coincidence. Now, tell it to come with me."

"No. Midnight very clearly hates you for some reason. **If** I could even convince her to go, she would run away at her first chance. And besides, if she doesn't want to go, I won't try to force her."

"It is a rare pokemon thought to have been killed. I need to, at the very least, study it's genome to try to figure out what pokemon it's related to and if it has any evolutions."

Ash smiled. "Why don't I give you a feather? You can do you genetic research then later we'll see if she will go with you."

"Very well." Prof. Hemlock said, still annoyed at not getting Midnight now. He stepped forward to pull out a primary feather.

Midnight released what is about as close to a squawk as a dog/cat creature can do. If he took that feather, she wouldn't be able to fly correctly until she grew a new one. She grabbed one at the base of her wing and held it out to Hemlock in her teeth. He took it and tried to pat her on the head, and she finally managed to Bite him.

"Midnight!" her trainer said, but smiled a bit as her returned her to the pokeball.

As always, dreams came to her.

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She was the one who had to hold them together. They couldn't fight-they were Higher Powers…they were the Chosen…

Inside the masterball, Midnight tossed and turned, horrified by the story that was unfolding.

Pikajenn, you mentioned that you thought it was odd that Andy, a starting trainer, had a L96 magmar. Remember, the trainers at Nightshade don't get starting pokemon, they just find them. The magmar chose to go with Andy. Why he did will be explained later 

I've heard some very good theories for Midnight. Although I do have my own vague idea of what will happen, I might change it to incorporate some others if I like them, so tell me them.

How many of you can guess what the dreams are?


	9. First real battle

Another chapter, another piece of the puzzle

Another chapter, another piece of the puzzle. Of course, in this chapter Midnight actually doesn't do anything…sorry, I promise something involving Midnight, who is the point of the whole story, will happen, and she do many interesting things, and otherwise astound you with her power, in the next chapter.

Just to refresh your memory in case you somehow managed to forget during the time you read my last disclaimer to the time this page loaded that I don't own pokemon, I don't own the copyright to pokemon. I do own pokemon in red, blue, yellow, gold, and silver, and in gold I own 248 different ones, all but kabuto and kabutops but I do not own the copyrights. I also own this story and the characters and places in it that don't exist in the game or TV show- Midnight, her town (Nightshade) and Prof. Hemlock, and a specially trained houndoom who will hunt you down if you steal them.

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She was the one who had to hold them together. They couldn't fight-they were Higher Powers…only she could stop them…they had to stop fighting…

Midnight cried out nervously inside the pokeball.

"Hey you!" called a rookie trainer. His name was Dan, and he was an aspiring trainer, although not a very good one. His pokemon had a tendency to quit in the middle of battles. They didn't like him much. "Wanna battle?"

Ash grinned. "Sure! How many pokemon?"

Dan had six pokemon, and he could see that Ash only had three. "All out, using every pokemon we have."

"OK. Go, umbreon!"

Dan blinked several times. The other trainer was clearly a very new one, so how did he have an umbreon? There were rare pokemon around, but umbreon only came out at night…oh well, at least it wouldn't be strong and it's trainer would be inexperienced.

"Go, rattata!" he yelled

"Rattata!" it called.

"Eon!' replied the umbreon.

"Rattata, use quick attack!" called Dan.

"Umbreon, use tackle!"

Rattata's quick attack hit hard, but umbreon's tackle was stronger. 

"Now use sand-attack!" called Ash

"No! Use quick attack again and dodge it!"

Before rattata could escape, it was hit by the sand attack, but dove out of the sand and rammed umbreon.

"Umbreon, fight back with bite!"

Umbreon's bite landed on rattata's neck, causing a critical hit. Rattata fainted.

"No! Go mankey! Use double kick!"

Mankey's double kick hit umbreon and the super effective attack fainted the dark pokemon.

"Go gyarados!" yelled Ash.

Dan gulped, and pulled out his pokedex to check it's level. Gyarados didn't usually evolve until lv20…

"What the heck?!? Your gyarados is level 5! How'd you get it?"

"Prof. Hemlock gave me them."

"Mankey, use double kick again!"

Mankey complied, but the attack was weak.

"Don't you know that gyarados is part flying? It has an advantage over fighting. Gyarados, use tackle!"

"Gyara!" it cried as it slammed headfirst into the tiny pig monkey pokemon.

"Mankey, use focus energy and then fury swipes!"

"Mankey!" it cried as it glowed before swiping gyarados across the face.

"Gyarados, try bite!"

Roaring, gyarados bit the fighting type, and it fainted.

"Grrr…your gyarados can't beat mareep! Go!"

"Reep!" bleated the sheep pokemon

"Mareep, use thundershock!"

"Gyarados, use bite again!"

Gyarados managed to Bite mareep before being shocked.

"Gyaraaaados" it groaned before fainting.

Ash reached for the masterball. He hadn't had time to heal Midnight since her last battle, but he didn't want to lose. He had to at least try…

"Go, Midnight!" he called, and the dark pokegoddess appeared, looking at the mareep.

To all my loyal readers, and the rest of my readers, I'm stuck on what other pokemon Ash should catch. Once you have a gyarados, umbreon and an incredibly powerful pokegoddess, what other pokemon would you add to your team?


	10. Effortless

Water and Sea blasted each other __

Water and Sea blasted each other. Fresh and salt water grew poisoned.

Thunder and lightning warred. Black clouds blotted out the sun.

*Stop it!* begged Midnight desperately in her dream.

"Go, Midnight!" yelled Ash.

Midnight appeared, looking at the tiny mareep. She spread her wings wide and flapped them lightly, knocking the puny pokemon over with ease.

[Who are you?] demanded the sheep. [How dare you, a flying type, show such disrespect to me!]

[I am Midnight, and I am not a Lesser pokemon. I am a Higher. **You** dare think that a mere type advantage will let you win this?]

[You are only Lv6! The other pokemon your master carries are only Lv5. I am Lv13 now, more then twice your level. I will win!]

[We will see]

"Midnight, use headbutt now!" Ash called.

"Mareep, counter with thundershock!" yelled Dan, though the appearance of an unknown pokemon surprised him.

Mareep shocked Midnight, but it scarcely slowed her down as she hit the pokemon, causing it to faint.

"Go, charmander!"

Ash decided to test Midnight's defensive abilites, since she wasn't in any danger from the other pokemon. "Midnight, use glare!"

Midnight glowered at the tiny lizard pokemon, who froze in place from fear.

Dan stared, shocked, as a second pokemon went down without making any impression on Midnight."Oh no! Charmander return, go pidgeotto!"

The majestic bird pokemon appeared, and looked at the pokegoddess before it. She was surprised, since Midnight was supposedly dead, and because according to legend, the legendary pokemon were not obedient to trainers. Still, Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres, Lugia and Mew all obeyed the current pokemon master…

"Midnight, use-huh?"

Pidgeotto had just 'fainted'. Midnight stared in shock.

[I'm not stupid. No Lesser Power pokemon can beat a Higher. Besides, I would never attack one of my own rulers.]

Midnight, was considered a legendary bird, as well as a legendary wolf. And no pokemon would attack it's own goddess. The pidgey family worshiped Midnight more then the other legendary birds, because they were more peaceful then the others. Other birds had their own special gods. Spearow's god was Zapdos, the most aggressive of the legendary birds. Therefore the pidgey and their evolutions would never attack her, even if she tried to kill them.

Dan groaned, but didn't realize the real reason pidgeotto refused to battle. He recalled it and gave Ash $205 (yes, that isn't the right symbol. Sorry, my computer doesn't seem to have it) Ash shouted, happy to have won his first real battle. He then hurried to the pokecenter to heal his pokemon.

So, how was the newest chapter? I've gotten a few reviews saying what pokemon Ash should add to his team, but keep giving me ideas. 


	11. Going

Fire fought

OK, on the summary it says that this is not an original trainer story. I **_hate_** those because they have been done to death. If you like those stories, there is the pokemon TV show. Therefore, I'm only going to mention a few of the gym badges he fights, and only a little (if any) of his travels from place to place.

__

Fire fought. Forrest fires raged and land-fire roared. Volcanoes erupted.

Ice blasted land-fire. The jungles grew cold. Land-fire retaliated, and mountain peaks, where ice pokemon lived, erupted in liquid rock.

__

Sky-fire added it's power to ice, and land-fire stumbled and fell.

*Why? Why do they want to find out which was stronger? They are Highers, they can't do this…* Midnight moaned in her dream.

"We hope to see you again" chirped Nurse Joy.

Ash smiled and thanked her, then asked "Do you know any pokemon I could borrow to get to get to one of the main cities?"

"Sure! We have an abra that knows teleport. She can bring you to Goldenrod City. From there you can go to three different cities."

"Great!"

Arriving at Goldenrod, Ash got a map, then walked out into the grassy area. "Go, Gyarados, Umbreon, Midnight!" he called. The three pokemon appeared. Ash smiled. "Hey guys, I realized I didn't give any of you nicknames yet. I wonder what I should call you…How about Darkmoon for umbreon, and Tsunami for Gyarados?"

Gyarados and Umbreon looked at Midnight in shock. Midnight was dark/flying, which meant she was a greater goddess to Umbreon, and a lesser goddess to gyarados, which was closer to Lugia.

[Goddess] said Umbreon reverently. [I had heard you were dead]

[Why do you serve a human?] asked the gyarados, shocked. He wasn't as stunned by her as the umbreon, and could ask questions.

Midnight looked at them [Why not? He caught me]

The umbreon accepted this without question. The word of the midnight goddess was law to any dark pokemon. But the gyarados felt confused. The legendary pokegods were said to obey no one. Of course, the three elemental storm birds obeyed the pokemon master, as did the god of the sea, and even peaceful Mew fought for him. That was unexplainable. It was the reason so few pokemon disobeyed their trainers, or even tried to escape capture anymore. If a human was above the pokegods…But, odd as that was, a pokemon master and a new trainer without a single badge are very, very different…

"Well. Do you like them?" asked Ash.

His two normal pokemon looked at him and smiled back, nodding.

"Midnight, do you want a nickname too?" He asked. She shook her head.

[Midnight is my name] she said to herself quietly.

"Hey Midnight, can you use fly now?"

[Yes] she replied, nodding.

"Do you know where Azalea is? They have a gym there. I heard it isn't too hard for a gym. They use bug pokemon, so Moon, you'll have trouble but Tsunami, your flying type will help protect you. As for you Midnight, I'm not sure, so we'll have to find out!"

His three pokemon yelled happily.

"Return, Moon, Tsunami" Ash got on Midnight's back. "Alright Midnight, use fly to get to Azalea!" he called exuberantly.

In the next chapter, Ash will get his first badge, and you learn something interesting about Midnight. He also will get one(or more) new pokemon.

For everyone out there who has pokemon gold or silver, I have an important question that has nothing to do with the story. In order to get all 250, you need Mew, right? So can you get it in the game, or can you only get 249 legally? (I already have mew, so I can't check myself)

Can anyone guess why the legendary pokemon are obeying Ash the pokemon master? Here's a hint- it's the same reason as Midnight is obeying her Ash, and it has already been mentioned in the reviews.


	12. Challenge

Sorry for the delay

Sorry for the delay. My dad is almost continually on the computer, so it's hard to find time to write this.

"Well, Midnight, here we are. Do you want to rest or are you ready for Bugsy right now?" asked Ash.

In answer, Midnight leaped away from the pokecenter she had just flown to and towards the gym. She knew where it was because of the large sign and arrow.

Still on her back, Ash blinked a few times, trying to figure out how she knew the way. He could tell it was the right way because of the big sign pointing in that direction, but how could she read?

Arriving at the large, forest-like gym, Ash recalled Midnight and walked in confidently.

"Bugsy! I want to challenge you!" Ash called. A twenty-something man jumped lightly off a low tree branch.

"No problem. Is three on three good for you?" said the man.

"A little friendly advice- most trainers who boast lose. Is that another challenge?"

"You use six pokemon against my three. I'll win!"

Bugsy was surprised, but if the fool wanted to lose, why stop him? "Fine." 

Why did I stop there? Simple. I want to know your guesses on what will happen in the battle. As Bugsy rightly pointed out, most trainers on the TV show lose the instant they start to get overconfident.

For all the people who I just **know** will complain, yes, in the Johto Journeys Bugsy is a kid. Well, SO IS ASH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is set _in the future_, after Ash grows up, becomes a pokemon master, and catches many of the legendary pokemon. So, Bugsy should also be older. For everyone who already understood that, sorry, but someone would have complained.

If you want to understand the following paragraph, read the reviews. To Satoshi a.k.a. Heero YuyZ, why wouldn't Mewtwo punish a trainer for trying to catch him? This is after the first movie(Ash and Prof. Oak are both famous). If it was before it, Mewtwo would have not bothered to save her and(for the sake of explanation) if she had tried to catch him afterwards he would probably have killed her anyway. **Hemlock **_gave_ the kid the masterball(he IS a pokemon researcher) and in the TV show you can reuse pokeballs(a good example being when Ash tried to catch charmander or primeape) although yes, in the game you can't. I never heard of league rules for starting pokemon, but I may have missed that. But anyway, once you have a starting pokemon, you can go out and catch other pokemon of any level(in theory, a starting trainer could go out with a lv5 pokemon, throw a pokeball and get lucky enough to catch a lv100 pokemon in the TV show. Yes, it would never happen, but it _could_). The trainers at Nightshade aren't usually given a masterball and told to go catch the strongest pokemon they can find, they have to catch it themselves. If different level pokemon were handed out, **then** it would be unfair. They just bypass the first part of being a trainer and go straight to catching.


	13. The Gym Battle

Sorry about the last chapter, in THIS one you will learn something interesting about Midnight

Sorry about the last chapter, in THIS one you will learn something interesting about Midnight.

Well, continuing the story-

"The match will be six on three-" the gym battle announcer broke off in surprise, then recovered "-no time limit. Uh, Bugsy, are you sure that this is fair to battle six on-"

"Go, Butterfree!" yelled Bugsy

"Go, Tsunami!" called Ash.

The confused announcer continued "The gym leader, Bugsy, has chosen a butterfree. The challenger, Ash, has chosen a gyarados."

[A gyarados? Ha, my poisonous powders will work even better then normal on you, water-type!] said the butterfree scornfully. (Author's note: I'm not sure if poison attacks work better on water types, but in my game they seem to)

[Don't be so cocky, you little bug!] snapped the angry gyarados.

Butterfree are normally kind. Though they battle willingly, they don't usually taunt, insult or really try to hurt the other pokemon when in battle. But this butterfree was trained by a gym leader.

"Butterfree, sleep powder now!"

"Tsunami, use watergun and wash away the powder!"

Butterfree shook it's wings, shaking off a blue powder, but Tsunami's watergun stopped it from hitting.

"Good job Tsunami, now bite!"

"Butterfree, use whirlwind!"

Tsunami charged at the bug pokemon, but scarcely nipped it before being blown away. The water pokemon was thrown into a tree, but it hurt the tree more then Tsunami. The 

raging gyarados slithered up from the now-shattered tree.

Seeing Tsunami's anger, Ash called out "Use dragon rage now!"

The huge, furious pokemon's eyes glowed a deadly red. A ball of fire formed in it's open mouth.

"Butterfree, fly away!"

The butterfree's wings labored, but it could not escape the raging flames poured from Tsunami's mouth.

"Butterfree is unable to battle. Gyarados is the winner!"

"Gyara!" It Roared victoriously. The announcer got so scared he had to hide behind a tree.

" Return, Butterfree. Not bad," said Bugsy. "But my next one will beat your giant. Go, Ladian!"

The red and black winged pokemon appeared, looking tiny in comparison to the huge 

gyarados.

[Well, your big. That means you're probably slow, like all big pokemon! I can run rings around you, you fat, clumsy fool!]

[You insolent bug!] roared the now-enraged gyarados

Ladian are normally soft-spoken pokemon who almost never insult other pokemon without reason. But this Ladian was trained by a gym leader.

"Ladian, use agility!"

"Gyarados, bite!"

Tsunami lunged for the ladybug pokemon, but it's agility allowed it to escaped.

"Good job, Ladian, now use comet punch!"

"Gyarados, get out of the way!"

Tsunami slid away, and the comet punch glanced off it's retreating tail.

"So, your gyarados isn't slow either. But it can't evade every attack-Use swift, Ladian!"

"La!" it agreed, sending out many tiny stars.

"Gyaaarrrradossssss" it groaned as the many stars hit it.

"No, gyarados, fight back with thrash attack!"

"Ra!!" it yelled, before starting to Thrash around, hitting the ladian hard.

"Ladi!" it yelped.

"Ladian, use takedown now!"

The tiny pokemon flew into the water serpent with surprising force. Tsunami managed to 

Thrash Ladian once more before fainting.

"Return, Tsunami, go, Darkmoon!"

Bugsy laughed. "You don't know much, do you? Bug pokemon are strong against Dark types!"

"Yeah, but Ladian doesn't learn bug attacks. It learns normal and _psychic_ attacks!" retorted Ash. "Moon, use headbutt!"

"Umbre!"

Moon rammed into the bug pokemon headfirst. It shuddered and slid back several feet.

Bugsy could see that the headbutt had done more damage then he expected. For already-weakened ladian, this could cause defeat.

"Ladian, use light screen!"

A almost invisible wall formed between Moon and Ladian.

"Light screen is a psychic attack, Moon! Use faint attack!"

Moon disappeared, then reappeared next to Ladian, hitting it hard.

"Ladian!" it screamed.

Ladian was now almost beaten.

"Ladian, use baton pass!"

Ladian vanished, to be replaced by scyther.

"What!" yelled Ash.

"Baton pass lets you exchange one pokemon for another," said Bugsy. "Now scyther is my second pokemon, and it's like Ladian was never battling"(Author' note: yes, I know that isn't true. But since in the TV show, switching pokemon never costs you a turn, I figured baton pass needed another use)

"No fair!" said Ash angrily.

"Scyther, use fury cutter!"

"Scyyy!" it screamed.

The blades on scyther's arms glowed briefly. It then slashed at umbreon.

"Moon, use faint attack so it can't hit you!"

"Eon!"

Umbreon disappeared again.

"Scyther, hit it when it hits you!"

Umbreon reappeared, hitting scyther and causing it to stumble. But it managed to hit 

Moon before the umbreon could disappear again

"Umbreeeeee…" it moaned and fainted.

Inside her pokeball, Midnight writhed, as she saw a portion before one of her other dreams.

__

Trapped…betrayed…she couldn't run! Her legs chained together, her wings wrapped close to her by a long length of chain…tied down…bars…she couldn't get free…she had to get **OUT!**

"Return Moon, go Midnight!"

The dark peacemaker appeared.

Scyther was bug/flying, and Midnight was dark/flying. Technically, this overlapping type should have made her one of scyther's gods. But because scyther was a bug type, and Midnight a dark type, this did not happen. Midnight had been dead for a long time, and her name and title, as well as her original duties, had been mostly forgotten by all but the most devoted worshipers. Scyther worshiped the other legendary birds, but not even they were considered major gods to the ninja-like bug. As for Midnight, she was completely forgotten.

[Another easy dark! Your master must be quite stupid!] jeered the bug. [I've never seen one like you before, but I'm not surprised. All the rest of your kind must have been wiped out long ago, if they were weaklings like you!]

Most scyther are respectful. But this one was trained by a gym leader.

[You pathetic, insolent fool Lesser] Midnight growled angrily. She could feel her anger building in her…

[I've fought beginning trainers before, but you're the worst I've ever seen] it continued.

Midnight started to glow slightly.

[I bet a newborn magikarp could beat you! If you ever tried to fight a ditto, the battle would last weeks before it beat you using your attacks!]

Midnight's eyes glowed red.

[Heck, even if the magikarp was cursed by all the pokegods and poisoned and frozen and asleep it could still beat you knowing only splash!]

Midnight opened her mouth-

The scyther stopped. [Hey, what are you doing? Some lame attack? Hey, maybe you know splash and you're getting ready to use it on land you pathetic excuse for a weak pokem-]

Midnight used flamethrower.

"What the ____!" yelled Bugsy. His scyther, one of his strongest, lay feebly on the ground, still smoldering a bit. "Scyther, return!' He glared at Ash. 'Where the ____ did that come from? I didn't hear you tell your _____ pokemon to nearly kill my _____ scyther!"

"I didn't tell Midnight to use flamethrower. I didn't even know she could use it. Maybe your pokemon said something that upset her," said Ash calmly.

Bugsy snickered. "Yeah right, like pokemon talk to each other. Go, Beedrill!"

"Drillllllllllll"

[How'd a weakling like you get this far?] asked the beedrill.

Beedrill don't usually insult their opponents. While they are vicious battlers, they don't believe in insulting. The outcome of the battle would determine the better pokemon, they think, so why insult before it? But this beedrill was trained by a gym leader.

[Hey beedrill, see that charred crater over there? That's what happened when I flamebroiled that scyther. It had a smart mouth too.] snapped Midnight. She was in no mood for insults.

"Midnight, use wing attack!"

"Mid!"

Midnight hit the beedrill with her wings. It fainted.

"What?!? How the _____ did that happen?" Bugsy was nervous. What kind of pokemon was this? How could it be so strong?" Go, parasect!"

"Midnight, try using flamethrower again!"

"Parasect, spore!"

Midnight's flamethrower burned away the spore and roasted the parasect.

"Return, parasect, go…shuckle!"

"ckle!" it called.

"Shuckle, use withdraw!"

"Midnight, can you use any electric attacks?" asked Ash desperately. Rock was good against fire and flying.

"Only zapdos, the legendary pokemon, is part flying but able to use electric attacks, and then only because it's part electric!"

"Mid…night!" she yelled before sending a thunderbolt attack at the shuckle (yet another author's note: I'm not sure if shuckle's second type of rock protects it's first type from attacks. In the game it usually doesn't, but I didn't want Midnight to keep using the same attacks of flamethrower and wing attack. And yes, rock is weak against electric. In RBY, all rock pokemon but the prehistoric ones are part ground, so you almost never see this)

The mold pokemon fainted without protest.

"Return, shuckle!" Bugsy thought to himself for a moment. He had been sure the strange pokemon would be beaten by shuckle, but it hadn't. Still, if he could slow it down…"Go, ariados!"

"Arai!"

"Ariados, use string shot, constrict and spiderweb! Tie it up so it won't be able to move!"

Ariados covered Midnight in sticky thread. Midnight struggled but for every strand she broke, five more were added.

Terror engulfed Midnight. She HAD to get free! Screaming, she Thrashed blindly, but the ariados continued to cover her with webbing..

Horrified by her confinement, she dug deeper into her power.

"Gen…GAR!" yelled an angry ghost pokemon who appeared.

I'll stop writing the story now, leaving you to ponder what has just happened. Write your guess on your review! Sorry about the cliffhanger, but this **is** six pages long, so I need to stop now.

Oh, how many readers got the hints I gave about gym leaders.

How many of you actually read the last chapter?


	14. Burn

Well, last time Midnight was trapped by ariados's webbing

Well, last time Midnight was trapped by ariados's webbing. In her fear, she called upon another of her powers, and a gengar appeared. 

Did Midnight use transform? But, a pokemon using transform can only turn into a thing that it sees. Midnight had never even seen a gengar as far as she could remember.

Did Midnight **call** another pokemon to help her? But how could she do that?

Or did something else happen?

The sticky strands collapsed as Midnight's body disappeared.

"Where did Midnight go?" asked Ash, confused.

"Gengar gen!" said the gengar, pointing to itself.

"You're Midnight?"

"Gen!" it said, nodding.

"Ok then, Midnight, use nightshade!-do you know nightshade?"

"Gar," it said, shaking it's head.

Bugsy snickered.

"Um…can you use thunderbolt?" said Ash hopefully.

Bugsy smirked. "Idiot. Ghost pokemon can't use-"

A thunderbolt attack hit the ariados hard, causing it to faint. Midnight floated over and turned back into her normal body.

"Wow Midnight, I didn't know you could do that!"

"Mid mid!" agreed Midnight. She hadn't know she could do it either. She added it to the small collection of knowledge she had about herself.

"Alright Bugsy! I won and earned a Hive Badge!" said Ash happily.

Bugsy growled softly, and threw the badge over to him. "Take the ____in badge!"

Ash walked out triumphantly. He had gotten his first badge!

Midnight walked happily by his side. She didn't understand why this battle had been so important, or why the pokemon had been so nasty, or why her trainer had gotten a tiny little thing instead of little pieces of paper, but oh well. She was sure she'd understand it some day.

Walking along the sidewalk, she brushed against the cold metal post of a sign. She screamed and reared up.

Ash, walking along next to Midnight, suddenly heard her let out a scream. It sounded like a cross between a cry, a howl and a roar.

Turning, he saw her rearing, with a-

A huge burn lay across her side.

So, what do you think of the newest chapter?


	15. Rumor

I'm happy to say many people understood why Midnight was burned, even though I didn't even tell you it was iron

I'm happy to say many people understood why Midnight was burned, even though I didn't even tell you it was iron. Good job! 

Iron is supposed to burn creatures of faerie. Almost all tales agree it burns elves, but they vary on everything else. Some said that it would react to magic, others the undead, etc. In the loosest terms, it is the enemy of any magical creature. It did not, originally, react to soulless creatures in myth because when the legends started, the concept of soul wasn't as ingrained as it is now. The whole soulless thing was a Christian addition.

"I'm afraid I don't understand why you're so upset. The metal must have been hot. It is unlikely it could have gotten that hot, but it is possible," said the Nurse Joy of Azalea Town.

"No, I thought that too, but when I touched it, it was…cold. I think it was made of iron, actually," said Ash.

"How strange," said Joy, sounding confused but not very upset. "Well, Midnight is all better. By the way, what kind of pokemon is she? I've never seen anything like her."

"I don't really know. Prof. Hemlock-"

"You work for Hemlock?!" yelped Nurse Joy, horrified.

"No, but Prof. Hemlock told me he wanted me to help catch her. I did, but she didn't want to go with him. What's the matter?"

"Probably nothing, just rumors. But…"

"Yes?"

"Prof. Hemlock is said to have worked on the Mewtwo Project."

"But even the existence of that is rumor! How can you know who worked on it?"

"I don't…for sure. But I've heard that he's still interested in creating new pokemon, even after what happened. Still, just rumors, for all I know the Mewtwo project may not even exist."

Ash walked out of the pokecenter, feeling more upset then he had when he'd gone in. Prof. Hemlock was part of the Mewtwo Project? The group of highly trained scientists who tried to clone a super-strong mew? 

The Mewtwo Project was existed only in rumor, but there were many things that pointed to it. In the harbor near New Island, where the Mewtwo Project was said to have been done, a pokemon trainer riding on the back of their flying pokemon was somehow blown into the ground, even though the day had almost no wind. They were both drenched to the bone, not in the salty sea spray but in fresh rainwater! The Nurse Joy, who was supposedly reported missing three months earlier, reappeared that same day. No one in the vicinity had any idea she was ever missing. Several hundred pokemon trainers were at the harbor at the time, and not a single one knew how they had gotten there.

There was more. An unknown pokemon was used by the Viridian Gym, who disappeared a not long before the incidents. When questioned by a reporter the gym leader said that 'it's none of your business what pokemon I use in my gym or where I get them, and if you don't keep your nose out of things like this you might lose it.'

Ash sighed. It would be great to find out the truth about the Mewtwo Project, like if it existed and if it ever managed to create a super pokemon, but he would never find out. Maybe, if he was lucky, someone great would find it out, like Ash, the greatest pokemon master. After all, who else but the master of the legendary birds of fire, ice, electric and psychic, and the master of mew, would catch the mysterious super-clone? Still…it would be wonderful to meet such a elusive pokemon. But Ash had no foolish ideas. He knew he could never meet it.

First, I would like to say thank you to everyone who has reviewed this story. Thanks to you, this particular story has over 60 reviews, and I have a grand total of just over 300! Thank you!

Also, what do you think the dark-type is? (And no one write evil!)


	16. Price

?????, you're right about umbreon. Umbreon's special defense is it's highest stat, and espeon's highest stat is special attack. I didn't know it could learn psychic, but if gyarados can learn thunder, why not?

Ok, it's now a while later. Ash has caught a sandshrew, and Midnight found a young sneasel, who came along. They have several badges (the hive, plain, storm, mineral, and glacier badges) and are more then half way to being able to challenge the elite four. Sorry anyone who wanted to hear all about those battles and captures, but I want to finish this story before I graduate college, so I'm going to skip it. They are stopping at a pokecenter to rest, and while the Nurse Joy is recovering form her shock of seeing all the rare pokemon, Ash is called by Prof. Hemlock.

"Hello Ash. You seem to be doing a good job of raising your pokemon. I finished an experiment and have another pokemon I don't need or want. It's yours."

Before Ash could say anything, Prof. Hemlock hung up, and a pokeball appeared in his hand.

"Well, that was odd," muttered Ash. "Why would he give me a pokemon for nothing-" his eyes fell on Midnight. " Oh! I guess he doesn't want me running off with Midnight."

Ash looked at the pokeball. What could be inside it? "Pokeball, go!" he yelled.

"Izor!" it yelled.

"A scizor? But they're ultra-rare!" said Ash in disbelief. He pulled out his pokedex. "Analyze: level," he said.

"Level five."

"Really? What attacks?"

"Steel wing, fury cutter, swords dance, false swipe, slash, wing attack, metal claw, quick attack, leer, pursuit, agiltiy."

"Um, hi scizor. Would you like to go play with the other pokemon?'

"Scizor!" it said, nodding, and walked over to them.

Ash sat down in a nearby chair. Prof. Hemlock must really want to keep him around. Scizor learned pursuit at Lv 12, false swipe at 18, agility at 24, metal claw at 30, slash at 36 and swords dance at 42. And it could only learn steel wing, and fury cutter by TM. As to how it had learned wing attack, he couldn't guess. Scyther, not scizor, learned that, and this scizor had to be newly hatched. His scizor was incredible.

"I just hope it doesn't mean he'll ask for something just as valuable from me," he said to himself, looking at Midnight quietly. Such a rare pokemon was priceless, but so were the combined three pokemon he now had from Prof. Hemlock

Midnight walked over to him.

"Midnight mid?" she asked, sensing that something was wrong.

"Oh, it's nothing Midnight," he said, petting her head.

Sorry about the lack of action. I promise, unless I think of something important, the next chapter will have them battling for the fog badge. However, there is plenty of foreshadowing, so think about the story.


	17. Pokegod?

Ok, to clear up part of the story- if you go and look at the other stories I have written, there is not a single one that is pro-trainer

Ok, to clear up part of the story- if you go and look at the other stories I have written, there is not a single one that is pro-trainer. A few are neither, but of the 20 ones in pokemon, none idolize trainers. Most involve pokemon who are unhappy because of the actions of their trainers (the trainers are either cruel or simply don't understand what they are doing). So, in this story, few of the trainers are going to be good. Bugsy wasn't nasty in the TV show, but in this story he is. No, I'm not doing this because I like to change set facts to conform to my views. There is a reason and it will be explained later. As in not now, and not tomorrow, and probably not the day after that.

Sorry, but Ash actually won't try to get a fog badge in this chapter. I changed my mind, and I'll do that one last. In this chapter he'll try for a zephyr badge. Now, remember Dan's pidgeotto?

"Well, here I am," Ash said thoughtfully. He didn't have any electric pokemon, but Midnight knew thunderbolt, and Tsunami was part flying, which would help protect it from the flying attacks. Plus his new scizor would also be protected from flying attacks, and if he could just get sneasle to use the ice punch he had taught it with a TM, he'd have no problem!

Ash walked in, the picture of confidence. Seeing Falkner, he immediately challenged him.

Falkner smiled. "I've heard about you. You are said to have a pokegod on your team, an unbeatable one, correct?"

"Yeah! Nothing is stronger than Midnight!"

"I was recently given certain pokemon. I would like to challenge you to a six on six battle. Do you accept?"

Ash had six pokemon. Since Midnight was relied on to finish the battles after his other pokemon had fainted, the fewer pokemon that fought meant the less Midnight would have to battle. But he felt that Midnight was, to normal pokemon at least, virtually unbeatable, so it didn't matter much.

"I accept!"

What do you think will happen next? And can anyone guess what the pokemon Falkner is talking about are?


	18. True or False?

In retrospect, I think I really should have done the rising badge, then the zephyr, then the fog, but oh well

In retrospect, I think I really should have done the rising badge, then the zephyr, then the fog, but oh well. Unless I get sick of typing halfway through, you should learn something…important/interesting about the story in general.

For anyone who cares, there are three different ways of writing. They are- first person, or a traditional POV. The writer uses 'I' to refer to the narrator. Second person is where the word 'you' is used to refer to a second character that the narrator is thinking about. Many instruction manuals are written in second person, and POVs can also be done like this. The final one is third person omnicient, or all knowing. This means what is happening is being written by an observer, who knows everything about the story(the author is the direct narrator). The narrator won't _explain_ everything that happens, but they **do** know.

Only one person correctly guessed what the special pokemon Falkner will use, and they didn't get it quite right.

"Hey Ash, why don't we make this a no-switching match?" said Falkner.

"Sure."

"Very well, then go, noctowl!"

"Go, Scizor!" said Ash. He knew that the weakest pokemon where usually sent out first, and scizor was at a very low level.

"Noctowl, use hypnosis!"

The noctowl's eyes begain to glow.

"Quick, Scizor, look away!"

Scizor quickly looked away from the shining eyes.

"Now, use wing attack!"

Before scizor could react, noctowl took advantage of it's averted gaze and hit it with a powerful wing attack. Thankfully, it was only half as effective as normal.

"No! Scizor, use swords dance then slash it!"

"Scizor!" it agreed, spinning around quickly then Slashing the owl pokemon.

"Noc!" it yelped.

"Noctowl, use toxic!" (a/n. I'm not sure if noctowl can use toxic, but I taught it to my pidgeot in RBY, and it doesn't have a conflicting type)

Noctowl spat a poisonous sludge at scizor.

"Scizor, try another slash, quick!"

Scizor slashed noctowl again, earning a critical hit, but was hurt by the poison. Both pokemon were now greatly weakened.

"Noctowl, use wing attack again!"

Noctowl hit the low-level pokemon again, and it fainted. Ash didn't mind much. In truth, he was surprised that a level five pokemon had lasted beyond one hit, even with it's type advantage.

"Go, Sneasel!"

The tiny ice/dark pokemon appeared. As a baby pokemon (no, I don't mean I think sneasel is a pre-evolution, but it is very young), it was unsure of it's natural abilities.

"Sneasel, noctowl is very weak now! Use your ice punch now!" Ash said, hoping that Sneasel would finally use an ice attack. So far, all he could get it to do were normal attacks. 

Sneasel faced the large bird. It felt scared, but saw that noctowl was greatly weakened.

Sneasel closed it's eyes in fright and ran in the general direction of noctowl.

Ash groaned. There was no way sneasel could possibly hit noctowl now-

A very shocked noctowl was now completely encased in ice.

"Wow, sneasel, didn't know you had it in you," said an equally shocked Ash.

Dumbfounded by what had happened, Falkner recalled his noctowl. "You just got lucky! Don't expect that to happen again!" he snarled. "Go, pidgeot! Use wing attack!"

The single hit knocked out sneasel.

"Go, Tsunami!"

"Gyarrrra!" it roared.

"Pidgeot, use quick attack!"

"Tsunami, use blizzard!"

Pidgeot dived in for quick attack, but the gyarados called up a blizzard, sending it flying backward incased in ice just like the last one.

Falkner smiled. "Not bad, but it won't be good enough for-"

"Dos!!!!!!!!!!!" screamed the enraged yellow bird. It was covered in jagged feathers.

"Falkner…has a zapdos?! But there is only one, and Ash Ketchem has that one…" said Ash, shocked.(no pun intended.)

"Zapdos, use thunder!"

The raging lightning hit gyarados, electrocuting the pokemon nearly to the point of death. A simple thundershock would have knocked out Tsunami, with it's great weakness to electricity and against a pokegod…

"Go, sandshrew!" Ash knew sandshrew would be at a disadvantage to flying, but wouldn't be hit by Zapdos' attacks, and he didn't think _any_ of his normal pokemon could stand up to a pokegod. Still, they might weaken it enough to help Midnight, who might have trouble as a part flying pokemon.

"Sandshrew, use sand attack!"

"Shrew!" 

Sandshrew quickly kicked up sand and dust at Zapdos, partially blinding the pokemon.

"Zapdos, close your eyes and listen to the scratching sounds sandshrew is making as it uses sand attack, then use drill peck!"

Zapdos obeyed, and somehow managed to hit sandshrew despite the low accuracy of the attack.

"Sandshrew, return!" Ash said, recalling the badly hurt pokemon. That zapdos was vicious! "Go, Moon!"

"Umbre!"

"Moon, use faint attack!"

Moon disappeared, and reappeared next to Zapdos, and hit it hard. Before the dark pokemon could start to fall it disappeared, then appeared on the ground.

"Good job Moon! Keep using faint attack!"

Moon disappeared and reappeared, hitting Zapdos over and over, then disappearing and reappearing at a new place before Zapdos could react. It seemed good, but Ash could tell that Moon was tiring.

"Zapdos, fill up the area around you with electricty! When it reappears, that umbreon will be in for a shock!"

Sure enough, Moon reappeared, hitting Zapdos again, and was shocked. It fainted in midair, then fell, hitting the ground with a sickening thump.

"Moon!" yelled Ash, horrified. "Return!"

"Doesn't seem like your pokemon are doing all that well after all," said Falkner smiling sadistically.

Ash glared at the other trainer. How could he be so cruel? "Go, Midnight!"

The winged pokegoddess came out.

*What…zapdos…but…no…you…you aren't…"

[You aren't Zapdos!] she whispered.

So, what do you think is going on?

Does anyone know of a finished Team Rocket takes over world, Mewtwo takes over world, etc. fic? I've found many, but none that are complete.


	19. Speech and Hatred

Last time, Ash was battling for the zephyr badge, after beating Falkner's noctowl and pidgeot, Zapdos was sent out

Last time, Ash was battling for the zephyr badge, after beating Falkner's noctowl and pidgeot, Zapdos was sent out. Ash fought back with his remaining pokemon, but they were all brutally attacked and fainted. Ash then sent out Midnight, who believes that the large, electric bird that keeps screaming zapdos isn't really Zapdos. Why am I repeating this for everyone, even though I'm sure you read the last chapter? I don't know.

Every single person who reviewed thought it was a ditto ::sighs:: remember, ditto don't get the power of the other pokemon, just the form, attacks, and type. Also, they don't come out of the pokeball already transformed. Only one person guessed that it might also be a genetic experiment.

[You aren't Zapdos] Midnight repeated.

Ash stared at Midnight. Every muscle in her body was rigid. What was the matter with her?

Midnight screamed, her voice a cross between a roar and a howl, filled with fury and sadness. She ran straight at Zapdos-

-Then right past it towards Falkner.

Snarling, she leapt at him, but Zapdos rammed into her before she could hit him.

"Midnight! Stop it now!" yelled Ash, but she ignored him.

"Go, Articuno, Motres, Lugia, attack!" screamed Falkner. "Don't let it get to me!"

The three other legendary birds attacked, surrounding her competely. Ash couldn't even see her. They were going to kill her…

"Clones!" she screamed, raging. "They're clones! I'll kill you for this!"

Ash froze. Did she just talk?

Midnight fell out, then sent a fire blast at Articuno, knocking it out. She then used blizzard against Zapdos, and then used hydo pump on Moltres. She then finished off Lugia with a quick crunch attack.

How could she use those attacks? wondered Ash. She didn't know then before…

The four birds fainted. Midnight, panting, ran at Falkner again.

"Midnight, return!" called Ash, just as she was about to rip Falkner's head off. "Well, I guess I beat you."

"Your pokemon tried to attack me! I won't give you a badge!"

Ash glared at Falkner. "Then maybe I should let Midnight out again," he snapped. He wouldn't, of course, but Ash had won that badge fairly, even though it was four against one.

"Fine! Take the stupid badge!"

Ash walked out of the gym, now with only two more badges to go. What had happened? Why did Midnight try to kill Falkner? How had she known that the pokemon were clones? Were they clones at all, or was something wrong with Midnight? But only Ash Ketchem had the legendary birds, and if the birds Falkner had were clones, it would make sense. 

But no, it still didn't make any sense! No one knew how to make clones! The only ones to ever attempt or succeed to clone pokemon were the scientists of New Island, and they were all dead. Besides, no one knew if they even existed…But if the pokemon he had just fought were clones, then Project Mewtwo must have existed. And Prof. Hemlock was said to have been part of it. All of the scientists were killed in the explosion, but maybe Prof. Hemlock wasn't there at the time…

Again, does anyone know of a finished Team Rocket takes over world, Mewtwo takes over world, etc. fic? I've found many, but none that are complete.


	20. Injuried

The reason only four of the five legendary birds were used by Falkner is because Ho-oh and the legendary wolves are still free

The reason only four of the five legendary birds were used by Falkner is because Ho-oh and the legendary wolves are still free.

Here's a hint to see if a trainer in any of my stories is good or not- if they capitalize the name of their pokemon (like you capitalize the name of a person) they are good. If the pokemon's name is lower case (like you would call a thing) then they don't consider pokemon as individual, intelligent creatures.

There is a reason that the gym leaders act like this.

"Nurse Joy!" called Ash as he ran through the doors. "Nurse Joy, my pokemon are badly hurt!"

Nurse Joy quickly took three of his pokeballs and rushed off. Ash sat down to wait.

A long time later, Nurse Joy reappeared. 

"How are my pokemon?" asked Ash, hopefully.

"I think Gyarados and Sandshrew's condition has stabilized. Gyarados was badly electrocuted, Sandshrew has a deep puncture wound, and Umbreon…"

"Yes?"

"The entire surface of it's body was flash-fried, and it has several severely broken ribs, plus internal bleeding. Several of it's major organs are half cooked, and most are a damaged. I'm not sure if it will make it… I haven't been able to help it, and it's condition is getting steadily worse."

Ash stared at her in shock. Moon was that badly hurt?

"I have to go back to work. I'll tell you if anything changes," Nurse Joy said, walking off.

Ash sat down quickly. Chancey had already healed Scizor, Sneasel and Midnight.

"Pokeballs, go!"

The three pokemon appeared.

"Looks, guys, after that last battle, Tsunami and Sandshrew were hurt. Their condition has stabilized, but they won't be fighting for several days if they even make it. And Moon… Nurse Joy says Moon might…die.

All three of them stared at him in shock.

If you know a completed fic about someone taking over the world, please put the name of it on your review.

What do you think will happen to Moon?


	21. Powers

Midnight walked silently through the dark halls down to the intensive care unit

Midnight walked silently through the dark halls down to the intensive care unit. Ash had been trying to seem cheerful earlier, after Nurse Joy came a second time to talk to him, but he was scared and worried. She had heard everything that Nurse Joy had said, and she understood what she had to do.

Ash was asleep right now. She had pretended to go to sleep earlier so that he wouldn't try to recall her. She felt bad about deceiving him. He was a good trainer, but she didn't have a choice.

Coming to the locked door, Midnight paused. She didn't want to break it down, but she had to get in. She knew there was a way…but she couldn't remember. Refraining from roaring in frustration, she paced back and forth soundlessly. She **had** known how to do things like this before…before what? She remembered doing this before. In her mind she looked at the rough-hewn wooden door she had just gone past, but how had she done it?

She hadn't Changed, she knew that, but maybe she could try that _this_ time, until she remembered. She closed her eyes and tried. Midnight focused on the image, and willed her form to change…

She opened her eyes in defeat. She couldn't even feel the Change try to begin. She needed more practice. Last time she had Changed, she hadn't realized what she was doing, she was just trying to get out of the webbing…maybe if she tried to get through the door? She wasn't scared or angry like when her powers normally came…maybe if she focused on what would happen if she didn't get through the door, if she stayed here, then it might work.

Midnight walked up to the door and pushed on it gently. She didn't want noticeable dents all over the door next morning, which would give her away. She thought about going through the door, and about what would happen if she couldn't get through soon, but nothing. Midnight felt the metal start to give, and hurriedly backed away. Horrified, she looked at the door, but the dent was scarcely there.

Midnight Glared at the number pad. If she had just been able to figure out how to get the information from Nurse Joy! She had known how to do that before too. Midnight felt even more like roaring, but no, that would wake Ash and Nurse Joy up, and might scare the Lessers inside, who were in bad condition. Before long, the pad started to spark, so she stopped Glaring at it. Moving closer until the tip of her nose just touched it, she looked at it. Strange that this simple, weak thing could stop her. She could rip it apart in seconds, but that would give her away.

Why didn't she just try to explain? Midnight knew there was a reason that she shouldn't let the humans know, but she couldn't remember it. She knew it was a _good_ reason though. But if she couldn't remember it, maybe she was making a mistake- no, there was a reason. She could not tell them, or let them find out!

But if she didn't get in there soon…

Midnight suddenly vanished into thin air.

What do you think is going on right now?

If you know a completed fic about someone taking over the world, please put the name of it on your review.


	22. Dying

Midnight felt disoriented

Midnight felt disoriented. Where was she? What was happening? She couldn't see in the normal sense, but she could tell stuff.

She suddenly knew the code for the door. She also knew that the number of times the door was opened, and at what time, was recorded. She couldn't just type it in…

But wait, if she altered _this_- and replaced _this_- then deleted the last entry _here_- then the next time the door was opened, it would be recorded as the empty entry, which still had the time on it!

(Pory!) she laughed. It was so simple!

Midnight then reappeared by the door, in the same position as before. Tapping the code in, she nearly laughed again in relief as the door opened.

Midnight walked in, pausing for a moment. She wasn't sure about what exactly had just happened, but she was in-

Midnight staggered suddenly. She could feel all the pokemon in the room. Some were asleep, tossing and turning in pain-filled nightmares. Many, though, were awake, the pain overcoming the painkillers and tranquilizers that filled their bodies. They reacted to her coming, leaving fevered half-dreams and trying to get up, to see if she was really there.

[Why are you here….?} whispered one.

[Yes…you were dead…] moaned another.

[I know I'm not dead, how can I see you…?]

[Please, goddess, tell me…the human won't…will I live or die…?]

[Don't worry.] Midnight answered. [You are strong, and the human tries hard. None of you are too badly hurt. You will live. All of you will but two. I have come to help them]

She walked slowly to Tsunami. Darkmoon was gone, though.

The huge water pokemon raised it's head. [Hello Midnight. Have you come to kill me?]

[No. I want to help]

[Why? My very existence…it is against to you.]

[It is not your fault. I will, however, deal with Him for this.]

[I don't think that even you can help me now. None of us after the first have ever lived long, and he…he was a fluke.]

[You may not be able to heal yourself, but I can heal you. I know there is a way for you to live]

[Don't bother. It doesn't matter. I will die soon anyway, even if we don't battle more]

[Tsunami, I promise you, there is a way.] Midnight began to glow. [Just stay alive until I find out how.]

What's going on? What has happened to Moon? Why is Tsunami dying?

Again, if you know a someone takes over the world fic, put the name of it on your review. Thanks!


	23. Terminal

For nitpickers, Tsunami and Moon are no longer its

For nitpickers, Tsunami and Moon are no longer its. I chose their gender in this chapter.

Well Alex, good job! You figured out what Tsunami and Moon are. And when Midnight said pory, she wasn't saying it aloud, so it was in (). The pokemon were near death, so they could sense Midnight clearly.

Midnight walked back out of the intensive care area unsteadily. Healing Tsunami was even harder then she had guessed. He already well past his normal life span, and the false-zapdos' attack had made it worse. Still, as a strong pokemon, he might be able to avoid taking major damage again, and he could still heal a bit. If she could have convinced him to give up earlier, it would have minimized the problem, but oh well. He was too loyal.

But Moon…Tsunami had explained that Nurse Joy had brought Moon out earlier, to put her in a better area- the section for terminally ill pokemon and old ones who were dying. Tsunami guessed it was because Nurse Joy didn't want the other pokemon upset by seeing one die, but the human had said it was because they had better equipment there.

Midnight's tail lashed. The human was only trying to help Moon. It was true- the machines that kept most of the pokemon in the terminal section alive was better. But Moon **couldn't** recover from her injuries. Coming to the door, Midnight stared in disbelief at the slot for a key card. Why would this place be harder to get into? No one would try to steal dying pokemon!

Conflicting goals ran through Midnight's head. She had to get to Moon- But she couldn't let them know- but Moon would die!

She couldn't remember why she couldn't let Ash know, so maybe it would be all right just this once. But it was a good reason, she remembered that. But was it good enough to let her friend die?

No matter what the reason was, nothing was worth that!

Still, a nagging doubt bothered her. Yes, Moon would die if she didn't get in, but that would happen anyway, considering what the umbreon was. But no, there was a way to fix that- but would it work once they had matured? And what if she didn't find it out soon enough?

No, she would take the risk.

Midnight backed up, then headbutted the steel door, knocking it aside, and walked in.


	24. Birth

To clarify what I said earlier about pokemon trainers- the trainer refers to the word pokemon with a lower case, but to the names of the pokemon as upper case, just like person, people, and human are said in lower case, but a person's name (like Mary) is

To clarify what I said earlier about pokemon trainers- a good trainer refers to the word _pokemon_ with a lower case, but to the _names_ of the pokemon as upper case, just like _person_, _people_, and _human_ are said in lower case, but a person's name (like **M**ary) is capitalized.

[pkchampion][1], good job for figuring out part of Midnight's dream!

The reason the clones are having problems healing will be explained soon. It is connected to Midnight's fury at Falkner.

[howlo2u][2]-I'm not saying if Midnight will be cloned by Prof. Hemlock yet (I'm still working on it) but Prof. Hemlock did want that feather for genetic research.

The metal door screeched as the thick steel bent, but by some unknown chance, Nurse Joy, the chanseys, or any other human did not awake.

From the last room, Midnight knew to be ready. But nothing could have prepared her for this.

Almost none of the pokemon stirred, even fewer were truly asleep. As their bodies died, their minds stayed active, aware of their slow death.

(Hello) they whispered, like wind rustling dry leaves. (We know you)

(Will you, Night, end it now?)

(It would be fitting, after all)

(Yes. Night is a good time for birth)

Midnight looked at them mournfully. They were, for all purposes, already dead. They still breathed, and blood still flowed, but not by their own power, or by their own wish to live.

Yet, if the humans found out…the door was broken, but if she helped them, it would be clearer who did it.

But machines can fail, after all.

She could not leave them like this.

So, any guesses as to what is going on right now?

   [1]: http://www.fanfiction.net/index.fic?action=directory-authorprofile&userid=71382
   [2]: http://www.fanfiction.net/index.fic?action=directory-authorprofile&userid=43979



	25. Must Be

Alex, the second part of what the other pokemon said(Night is a good time for birth) refers to the time of day (but the sanity of the pokemon are is questionable)

Alex, the second part of what the other pokemon said(Night is a good time for birth) refers to the time of day (but the sanity of the pokemon are is questionable). The reason they are both calling her Night and talking about night itself is because it's very connected. When I wrote it I noticed it was confusing, but it has to be done like that.

As to what her dreams are, I'm not saying.

This chapter may force me change the rating (and it may also mean that I now have only one fully nice story.)

I'm sure someone will be upset by this.

Midnight closed her eyes, and mentally 'saw' each pokemon's condition. No pokemon who was not dying was put in here, but some might still be healable. While she couldn't do anything about age, maybe-

No. They had all been sick too long. Few could even still breathe under their own power. Plenty of them no longer had beating hearts. If they could, then they would have been in intensive care, not here.

Only Moon could even be healed, and even then, Midnight wasn't sure it would work.

Midnight gathered her power around her, then released it. One by one, the machines crackled, sparked, and died. And one by one, the minds in the room disappeared.

(Good luck) whispered Midnight, and then only Moon was left.

Walking over to the comatose umbreon, Midnight surveyed the damage. It was far, far worse then Tsunami, and **if** she succeeded, and Moon lived, she herself might be too tired to escape before dawn.

Still, for a friend, it was worth it. She had to at least try. Focusing her remaining energy, she began to restore Moon's body.

OK. By writing this, I am not saying that assisted suicide and things like that are always good. But since I believe in reincarnation, this is happening in the story. If this seriously offends your own personal beliefs, I'm sorry. I know many people don't like it (one of my friends asked if I believed in reincarnation, and she nearly had a heart attack when I said that I did). I just think coming back again and again is better then being eternally punished or rewarded on the basis of a single life.

Do you think that should A) change the rating and B) what should it be changed to? I don't think that this chapter is a G.

Finally, thank you for all the reviews! I have over a hundred for this fic alone!


	26. Murder!

Midnight opened her eyes

This chapter mainly focuses on the results of Midnight's actions. Sorry, sorry, sorry sorry sorry and sorry. I promise that there will be many action-packed chapters up ahead. And I promise that I will upload the next chapter tomorrow unless something happens.

Midnight opened her eyes. It was near dawn. On the table in front of her, Moon slept peacefully, nearly healed.

She had done it. Moon would live.

Midnight froze. She could sense things, and she could tell that the sun had just started rising. A memory from-from _somewhere_- told her that Nurse Joy gets up very early, to help the pokemon. She had better get back to Ash!

Staggering from lack of energy, Midnight started to run swiftly back the way she'd come. Her black paws hit the ground silently as she raced back to her trainer.

A piercing scream woke Ash shortly after dawn. He got up and ran toward the sound. It had sounded like Nurse Joy!

Ash ran down the corridors until he came to a mangled door. It was thick, heavy steel, and had been ripped off the hinges and brutally bent. Through the doorway he saw Nurse Joy. She was standing, now silent, staring at the room.

For a second, Ash didn't see the problem. There were many pokemon, and they were hooked up to complex machines. Then he realized that none of the pokemon were breathing, and none of the machines were working. Someone had come in, and disabled every one of them!

"Thank you, Officer, for coming so quickly," said Nurse Joy.

"Well, this is quite serious! Where are the pokemon?" answered Officer Jenny.

"Follow me," said Joy quickly, and walked down the halls until she came to the destroyed door.

"This was done during the night. As you can see, the door is very strong. Whoever did this would have been very, very strong and almost certainly have needed to hit the door many times," said Joy.

"But just hitting it once should have woken everyone up. While there is a **chance** that you would have stayed sleep, if the person hit this more then once, everyone would have woken up!" replied Jenny.

"So whoever did this knocked the door down in one hit?"

"Yes. Don't the security cameras show who did it?"

"No. It's very strange, but one section of the tape is blanked out on every camera. First the corridors to intensive care, then the intensive care room, then the corridors again, and this time the patch of destroyed tape is in the corridors to the terminal area, then that room. The blank part of that tape lasts until dawn, then disappears to show the dead pokemon, and one, an umbreon, sleeping peacefully when last night it was dying! The blank patch then goes to the camera in the halls again, then disappears. It isn't just one camera, but all of the ones in the corridors and the rooms!"

"That means that someone must have some kind of device that interrupts a camera. If the person was carrying this, then every camera that they passed would have done this."

"And one of the pokemon in the intensive care, a gyarados, who was dying-"

"What do you mean, dying?" interrupted Jenny

"A pokemon trainer named Ash came in with three critically injured pokemon, a sandshrew, a gyarados and a umbreon. The sandshrew was fine, but the gyarados' condition, after initially being stabilized, began to decline, and I couldn't do anything to stop it. See, that's it," said Joy, freezing the picture and pointing to a bloody gyarados.

"And how do you know that it didn't just get better during the night?"

"Well, after the blank spot, which was just a few minutes, we can see it, and look," she said pointing to Tsunami again. "The gyarados is uninjured." In the picture, Tsunami looked completely normal. He didn't even have a scratch on him!"

"That's very odd. Do you have any idea on what happened?"

"No. I checked it out, and the gyarados seems to have completely healed. While it might have started healing, there was no way that much damage could have been healed within a week! And what's happened to Ash's umbreon is even stranger! It is the only still-living pokemon in the terminal ward."

"Why was his umbreon there? Few pokemon fights could have gotten this brutal! If he let this happen to his umbreon, shouldn't you revoke his trainer license?"

"Ash explained that he had battled Falkner, and the Zapdos did this to all of his badly hurt pokemon. Truthfully, I wasn't sure that the umbreon would live five minutes after being released from it's pokeball. It's ribs were broken, organs ruptured and every inch of it's skin had been flash-fried by zapdos' electicity."

"Falkner's pokemon have been aggressive, but never like this! Do you know how he got the zapdos?"

"Ash Ketchem probably loaned it to him. Anyway, the umbreon didn't just give up and die. It had real spirit. In fact, it looked like it would pull through. But just like gyarados, started to decline. It clearly was struggling to stay alive, but was dying all the same. I don't really understand it. It was like it's body was just refusing to heal itself. Yet when I came in this morning, it was fully healed!"

"Strange. I wonder in there is any connection. Do you think that the umbreon could have taken the energy from-"

"Don't say anything about that! We don't know-"

"But still, does it look like that happened?"

"I'm not quite sure. I'd think it did that, but it doesn't explain gyarados. Plus, the machines were off. The pokemon hadn't been _killed_."

"But can't dark pokemon feed off-"

"None of that has been proven!"

"But it **has** been proven that the dark type, can reduce the effectiveness of machinery, and at high enough levels, even completely destroy machines."

"**Healthy**, high level, well trained pokemon. This umbreon is high level, but it would have been too weak, even **if** it had been trained to do so. Besides, it still doesn't explain gyarados. The door there isn't damaged, and according to the records, it wasn't opened during the night."

"What's wrong with the machines?"

"Nothing. I checked every inch of the circuitry, and nothing is wrong. No lose wires, no brakes, no short circuits, nothing."

"Which is exactly what would happen if a dark-type had done this."

"Could a wild psychic or dark pokemon have done this?"

"Maybe, but it's very unlikely. No motive, especially for the psychic, who would have no reason to heal a dark type."

"Are there any other dark pokemon around here? Ones who aren't hurt and maybe could have done this?"

"Well…" Nurse Joy looked down. "The trainer, Ash, who came in with them, also had a sneasel, but it couldn't have done this because it's just a baby, and at a very low level. And he also had a strange pokemon with him. He called it a midnight and I think it was dark/flying."

"Could it have done this?"

"I don't know anything about it other them how it looks! Besides, we don't have any idea of what did this and we probably never will!"

Officer Jenny sighed. Nurse Joy would never believe that dark pokemon were evil. "I should probably check out the dead ones."

Ash stared down at his pokeballs. He had just looked in on Tsunami. Last night Nurse Joy had told him Tsunami was dying, and that if it lived through the night without change it might pull through, but otherwise…

Yet when he walked in to see Tsunami, after seeing all the pokemon in the terminal wards dead but Moon, the gyarados had seemed…fine. He was slithering around on the ground, in fact. Ash had let him out to see his other pokemon, before returning Tsunami to his pokeball. And Moon was fully healed too. Dark pokemon were said to feed off- no, Moon would never have done something like that, and it couldn't have destroyed the door.

But Midnight could have broken the door off easily. She was far strong enough. And she might have been able to figure out the code to punch in to get to intensive care. But why would she have killed all those pokemon? Unless she had wanted to heal Tsunami and Moon, and had needed energy…No, she wouldn't have done something like that. Besides, why take the almost dead pokemon in the terminal ward, instead of the slightly stronger ones in intensive care?

But what if she had only gone to the terminal ward, and stolen the energy there, then sent some of it to gyarados?

Ash sighed. He would probably never know.

Well, with that out of the way, I wish to ask you, the reader, a question. I'm thinking of skipping the rising badge. I've already done the fog badge, which will be the last badge Ash gets and I can't really think of any real reason to do the rising badge. I can't think of anything important that will happen and so doing the battle would be pointless. Do you want me to type it anyway and try to think of some new thing to happen in the rising badge?

By the way, if anyone is wondering why Ash doesn't know that gyarados was apparently healed before the other pokemon in the terminal ward were killed, it's because no one told him the details.


	27. Legendary

In this chapter Ash will go for a fog badge

Since I couldn't think of anything, I'm just doing this badge. And yes, all gym leaders in Johto are jerks. Why? You'll see soon enough!

Alex, the reason I don't have a pre-reader is because I often write then post a chapter on the same day.

In this chapter Ash will go for a fog badge. Since Ash in Johto Journeys hasn't gone here yet, I don't know how he will act, so I just made it up. He'll be kind of like Sabrina.

Midnight whimpered in her pokeball, unheard by Ash. She was getting more and more afraid of being in there.

__

Plants froze from cold and others withered under a too-hot sun. The Lessers shivered and burned. The sky was bright and dark, ignoring the natural night and day. Floods covered the land, and droughts appeared in other places. Food disappeared and did not grow again.

Midnight shook in horror as she watched them die.

Ash looked at the forbiding gym of the ghost type. Midnight should have the advantage in this gym, but ghost pokemon…he knew why most trainers saved this gym for last. No one fought here unless they had no other badge left. Better fail at some other gym then go here and pay the price of failure. Still, he had a pokegoddess.

Walking in, he saw the dark floor. He'd heard about this place. There was a path across the floor. The black path was indistinguishable from the rest of the floor. If you fell in, you'd warp back to the beginning…unless you were unlucky. According to rumor, one single place didn't have a warp panel. If you fell in there…

Ash decided not to take the risk. "Go Midnight! Fly me over to the other side!"

Midnight appeared. It was dark, even though she could tell it was-or should be-day. For an instant her dream came back in full force, but no, this was just a building. Ash got on her back and she obligingly flew him to the lone trainer on the other side.

"So, you want to challenge me?" said the trainer, hidden in the shadows. "So be it. I am the ghost trainer. I am very interested in legendary pokemon, as you may have heard. If you lose, rather then the normal price, I want that pokemon." He pointed at Midnight.

"If I refuse?" asked Ash.

"Simple. You pay the normal price, and after one of my pokemon has finished your soul, I take it's pokeball from your dead body."

"I see," said Ash nervously. "Okay, I agree. How many pokemon?"

"You have a pokegoddess, after all. A halfway good trainer can win with a pokegod, so you may use only that. We begin now."

So, what do you think will happen? Will Ash lose, and have to give up Midnight, then have to come back, risking his soul, and try to win her back, or will he just win?


	28. Nightmare

Ch29 Midnight's battle for badge

Ch29 Midnight's battle for badge

Sandshrew has evolved into sandslash by now, for anyone who cares. Why? Because I know that evolved pokemon are stronger, that's why. And because this fic isn't a like Ash Ketchem's journey, where he doesn't get any evolved pokemon but charizard and pidgeot, and then gets rid of them quickly.

"Go, gengar," said Morty.

"Midnight, try wing attack!"

The gengar looked at Midnight. She was known to the ghost pokemon. They did not die naturally, and they remembered her, though few had lived when she still did. No normal ghost pokemon would attack her.

But this was a gym leader's pokemon.

"Gengar, use hypnosis!"

Midnight looked at the ghost. She had no wish to attack it.

"Geng," it said, it's eyes glowing.

Midnight Glared at the smaller pokemon. How **dare** it attack her!

"Gengar, shake it off and use night shade!"

"Geng…" it said, dark energy gathering in it's hands-

"Midnight, use- huh?"

Midnight's wings were shining for a moment, before she leapt forward-

-"GAR!" it screamed, releasing the devastating night shade attack.

Midnight's wings, now tinted silver, cut through the attack like it was fog, and smashed into the gengar, fainting it.

"Gengar, return. Not bad, trainer, but it might help if it actually listened to you like my pokemon do. When I get it, it won't dare disobey me for long. Go, haunter. Use shadow ball."

The haunter quickly threw out a dark ball at Midnight. She tried to dodge, but slipped on the strange floor of the gym, and was hit full force by the powerful attack. She lay still for a moment, stunned.

"What the…how could the attack do so much damage?" said Ash, greatly surprised.

"I've raised my ghost pokemon to be strong enough to take out even the legendaries. I will win! Haunter, use hypnosis."

The haunter's eyes glowed and unlike the fainted gengar it managed to put Midnight o sleep.

"Quick haunter, use dream eater!"

"Haunt!" it said, stealing the life from Midnight. She groaned and awoke.

"Strange, few pokemon have survived dream eater. Oh well, it won't last much longer. Haunter, use shadow ball again!"

"Midnight, use-"

Midnight, not trusting the floor, jumped into the air flapping her wings. The shadow ball flew by underneath her, hitting one of unseen walls of the gym. Ash couldn't tell how much damage it had done in the darkness of the ghost gym, but Midnight could, and it worried her. This was, after all, only Morty's second most powerful pokemon.

"Mid!" she yelled, unleashing a bolt of lightning on the haunter. It fainted.

"Go, gastly!"

"Mid?" she said, confused. Morty was sending out his pokemon in reverse evolutionary order.

"Gastly, use toxic!"

The part-poison pokemon spat a glob of sludge at her. Midnight became badly poisoned.

"Midnight, please! You have to listen to me!"

Midnight looked at Ash. She was upsetting him by not listening. But he didn't know much about the ghost pokemon. And this battle would be harder then usual.

"Gastly, now use-"

She opened her mouth, hitting the gastly with a quick ice beam, before leaping forward and using bite. It fainted and was recalled.

Morty smiled. He held his pokeball in his hand, as if deciding whether or not to use it, as he watched the poison begin to take effect. Midnight swayed slightly. Perfect.

"Go, misdreavus!"

A strange ghost pokemon appeared. It seemed feminine, the vapors that swirled around it's head looking like long hair, and something that looked like a beaded necklace was around it's neck, right before it's form disappeared back into vapor.

"Misdreavus, use thunder!"

The ghost pokemon threw many bolts of lightning at Midnight, causing her to stagger and nearly fall.

Shaking of the lingering effects of the electricity, Midnight used flamethrower, knocking out the weaker ghost.

"Return, misdrevous, go, gengar. Use ice punch!"

One of the gengar's hands glowed, and it raced forward, punching Midnight. Ice raced along her body and she shuddered in cold, but before the ghost could withdraw she whacked it with another steel wing. Like all the rest, this gengar fainted.

"Not bad. But there is no way your pokegod can beat this, even if it wasn't so weak and poisoned," said Morty. He was confidant he would win, but there was no harm in being careful and stalling again for a bit so the poison could hurt the legendary more. "Do you want to just forfeit now and save us both the time and effort?"

"Not a chance!"

"Very well. Pokeball, go!"

A gigantic gengar appeared. Morty didn't even stand as high as the huge creatures ankle. "Use hypnosis!"

The giant's eyes glowed. Midnight fell, asleep. The longer she was kept from attacking, the weaker she would be, as the poison hurt her again and again.

"Now, gengar, use nightmare!"

Sleeping, Midnight began to dream.

__

Running…others with me…winged ones above, four legged beside me…a voice, a voice in my head…which is stronger, they fight, want to prove, can't stop fighting…

She was the one who had to hold them together. They couldn't fight-they were Higher Powers…only she could stop them…they had to stop fighting…

Trapped…betrayed…she couldn't run! Her legs chained together, her wings wrapped close to her by a long length of chain…tied down…bars…she couldn't get free…she had to get **OUT!**

Burning…they were going to burn her…she could see the pyre they made for her…she couldn't escape-her legs were chained, her wings broken. And she couldn't tell them to stop-they had ripped her throat out. They were sealing their own doom.

…fighting…the highter's fighting…they were the chosen of all pokemon…they were tearing the pokemon apart…chaos…

*Stop it!* she screamed voicelessly. But they didn't. Because she wasn't there. Because she had failed.

Water and Sea blasted each other. Fresh and salt water grew poisoned.

Thunder and lightning warred. Black clouds blotted out the sun.

Fire fought. Forrestfires raged and land-fire roared. Volcanoes erupted.

Ice blasted land-fire. The jungles grew cold. Land-fire retaliated, and mountain peaks, where ice pokemon lived, erupted in liquid rock.

__

Sky-fire added it's power to ice, and land-fire stumbled and fell.

Crops froze from cold and others withered under a too-hot sun. The lessers shivered and burned. The sky was bright and dark, ignoring the natural night and day. Floods covered the land, and droughts appeared in other places. Food disappeared and did not grow again.

__

Then even the Skys turned on one another, and the Lands fought among themselves, until the Skys were forced into sleep and the Lands encased in stone.

All over the world, the lessers turned on each other.

And it was all because she hadn't stopped them.

It was all her fault.

So, any guesses to what will happen next? What do you think of her completed dream?

By the way, all the attacks the ghost pokemon used can be used in the game. I bought a walkthrough that has a pokedex section that included what TMs a pokemon can use.


	29. Shadows

Wow

Wow. When I started this, I thought maybe it would get to around 20 chapters at most. And now…

Morty smiled coldly as Midnight screamed from her dream.

"Midnight, wake up!" yelled Ash. She stirred and staggered to her feet.

"Gengar, use hypnosis again."

A low growl came from Midnight.

The gengar paused, and looked down at her. [I don't see why you're so upset] it said. [I don't see what you're so angry about.]

[Destroyer] Midnight growled. [What fool awoke you again?]

[Why do you call **me** a destroyer? That is also, after all, one of **your** titles.]

[I do not attempt to destroy the world] Midnight whispered. [I always thought that they were making a mistake, back when we were strong and united. But they did not wish to destroy your soul, as would happen if you, a ghost pokemon, were killed.]

[Yes, they hoped I would learn the error of my ways. They killed me for it, but I came back, and they would not kill me again. They were stupid to make such a gamble. When my master claims you, the world will be his, because **you** will catch the other wolves, and with all of them together my master will defeat the chosen one, and we will rule.]

[That will not happen, especially here, in this shadow gym. I will fix their mistakes]

[You will lose. You are weak and poisoned!] it said, throwing a shadow ball.

Midnight began to glow with black energy. She did not move, and the dark ball hit her, but did no damage.

"Midnight!" she screamed, and the shadows engulfed the monstrous gengar, and it disappeared.

Well, Ash now has the last gym badge. What do you think will happen next?


	30. Spreading her wings

You know how in the pokemon Tv show, Ash spends most of his time just traveling around learning or teaching valuable lessons

Alex, on the first espisode of pokemon, I'm pretty sure that gengar in the battle Ash was watching on TV used nightshade, and it gathered in the hands. And as for if the gengar is the one from pokemopolis, let's just think. It was huge, wanted to destroy the world, existed back when all the legendary pokemon were united, nah, it's probably some other gengar.

I don't own any of the pokemon songs either.

Ash was happily walking down to Goldenrod City. From there, he would use the second monorail to get to New Bark Town, from where he could Surf to route 27, and then he could walk to the Indigo Plateau! Now, he could challenge the Elite Four and the Champion!

In fact, he felt that his pokemon should be let out too. It was a nice day, and they had all worked hard for his eight badges.

"Pokeballs, go!" Ash called, summoning his six pokemon- Sandslash, Sneasel, Scizor, Darkmoon, Tsunami and Midnight.

"Midnight mid!" said Midnight happily. She loved being outside! It was so much better then a dark pokeball.

"Sci," muttered Scizor darkly.

"Eon!" chirped Moon.

"Gyara!" roared Tsunami.

"Slash!" Sandslash cried energetically.

"Easel?" murmured Sneasel nervously.

Ash turned on his radio on his pokegear so they could have music to walk to. 

**__**

In the morning when you wake up

Open your eyes to a new day

Look around at the gifts you've got

You've been so lucky along the way

Time to finish what you've begun

Have faith, you're the one

Throw your hat high -up to the sun

Now you face the greatest test

Use the lessons that you've learned

Your goal is to be the best

And claim the prize that you've earned

Ever since you were a young man

You've kept your eye on the master plan

To reach for the top -and touch the sky

It's your destiny

To spread your wings and fly

You can do it if you really try

You can do it if you really try

Spread your wings and learn to fly

You can do it if you really, really try

Keep moving forward to stay alive

Trust your heart and you'll survive

Follow your dreams, never let them die

It's your destiny

To spread your wings and fly

I guess I do face the greatest test soon, but not for myself really, thought Midnight. After all those times of listening to that song, who would have thought I really would spread my wings?

Midnight froze. Where had that thought come from?

"Midnight? What's the matter?" asked Ash, seeing that she had stopped walking.

Shaking her head firmly, Midnight pranced up to the rest of the group. [Nothing really]

Ash may not have been able to understand pokemon, but he got the tone. Still, he was suspicious.

Well, that should leave all of you with something to think about until tomorrow, when I'll post the next chapter.


	31. Houndour War

If you do not wish to flame this story, you may skip this section

If you do not wish to flame this story, you may skip this section.

Because my new idea for flamers is to reply to them as they reviewed me, here is Satoshi a.k.a. Heero_YuyZ's review:

I don't know what crack you were smoking to come up with all the johto gym leaders being bad. They're actually some nice peeps and this is SOOOOO stupid! And that's against league rules! HELL! He said he'd kill him! Wow, that's illegal to you idiot! The gym would have been long shut down if any of this were really going on which it isn't.

So thus-

I don't know how high you were when you read this, but it must have been pretty bad. I know that they are nice on the TV show. And look, I don't care the slightest bit about league rules. You already complained about another league rule I've never heard of, I already explained that one, and your continued insistence in 'league rules' that I've never even heard of is SOOOOOOOOO stupid. Duh, Morty said that he would kill Ash. In fact, he threatened to destroy his soul, you idiot. Why? Firstly, because I feel the TV show is too light and fluffy. Second, this is in the FUTURE, you idiot. Things could have happened that make this world *slightly* different then in the Johto Journeys. I do have a reason, which will be shown at some future date in some later chapter. And in the TV show Sabrina turned people into dolls, which means that if there was a league rule about not doing anything to challengers, Sabrina wouldn't have a gym(you idiot).

Before you read my latest chapter, please think about pokemon and their trainers. Specifically, please think about pokemon disobeying their trainers and trainers abusing pokemon.

Also, I would like to remind you this is **NOT** meant to be an original trainer story. Right now it is developing like that, but other things will happen.

Ash is continuing on his journey. Like his namesake all-to-often did, he is currently walking on some unknown path that isn't in the game, so of course anyone who went through all the trouble of learning the map won't have a clue where he is.

Ash looked down at Midnight. All the other pokemon had gotten tired of walking and gone back in their pokeballs, but she hadn't. When he asked her if she wanted to go in, she had refused, looking…scared?

Walking around the corner of the path, they heard loud curses and roars. They then saw a houndour and it's trainer.

The trainer was vigorously kicking the houndour. While the majority of pokemon trainers did not believe in pokemon abuse, it happened more then occasionally, although most good trainers tried to stop it. In fact, that was probably why they were here, on this rarely used path. There was less noticeable pokemon abuse now, though, since Ash Ketchem had become a pokemon master and gotten the legendary pokemon. Most trainers did it in the privacy of their own homes. But what was happening was very unusual.

Rather then seeing a cowering, trembling pokemon trying to shield itself from it's trainer's kicks, Ash saw something that looked more like war. As much as the trainer kicked it, it flamed him or bit his foot. The houndour's trainer was blackened, bloody and smoldering slightly. As far as Ash could tell, he was worse off then the brused houndour.

"Hey, you, what do you think you're doing?" yelled Ash.

"Mid!" Midnight agreed.

The trainer looked up, slightly surprised and very annoyed by Ash's appearance, and very surprised by the sight of Midnight.

"----- -. ------! What kind of pokemon is that!?" he yelped, whipping out his pokedex

"No available data" it said in a monotone 

The houndour looked up, then cowered on the ground, whimpering.

[What's wrong?] asked Midnight curiously.

Alright, that *did* have point to it. What do you think will happen?


	32. Obedience

[What's the matter

[What's the matter?] asked Midnight curiously, while Ash got into an argument with the other trainer over how to raise pokemon. Since I'm sure most of you have seen Ash in the TV show do this, let's skip most of the argument and pay attention to the pokemon.

The houndour somehow managed to lift its head without moving itself the slightest bit from it's prostrated position on the ground. [Even you obey humans] it whined.(a/n whined as in how dogs whimper, not whined like annoying little brothers)

[What do you mean? What does that matter?] said Midnight.

[If even the Midnight Goddess obeys humans, we should, too.]

[What are you talking about?] said poor Midnight, who was now completely confused.

[All the others obey because their gods belong to Ash, the chosen one. But if you also obey, then even the dark must obey.]

Midnight thought about this. It was true that the others obeyed Ash, or so she'd heard. But she obeyed because she wanted to.

[If I didn't want to obey, I would do as I pleased. If he gives me a bad order, I ignore it. But I follow him]

[Why?]

Ash and the other trainer were now trading insults.

Midnight paused, thinking. [Why not? If he was cruel to me, I would leave.]

[So should I leave?]

[Yes! Find a better trainer, or stay free. Why stay with him?]

[But he won't let me leave, and he can always recall me.]

[I'll get rid of the pokeball.] Midnight promised.

Ash and the other trainer were now boasting about how strong they were as trainers.

Houndour started to leave.

"Yeah, well I've gotten plenty of badges. I got the- hey, houndour, get back here!" said the trainer, spinning around. Midnight ran silently up behind him, grabbing one pokeball and crushing it before he could grab it back.

"Hey, your stupid pokemon just broke my pokeball!"

"Hey Midnight, maybe we should leave," said Ash, and the trainer started ranting and saying words I would write but this is rated PG.

"Night!" she agreed, and Ash jumped on her back. She swiftly raced off.

All right, if you paid attention you should have learned something from that. Otherwise, don't bother me.

Sorry about the delay. I've had this written for several days, but I've been banned from the computer, had a friend over, and got dragged to a family gathering.


	33. Getting there

Ash stared over the side of his borrowed lapras

Ash stared over the side of his borrowed lapras. It was part of a business that ferried pokemon trainers to Victory Road, because many trainers didn't have a pokemon who could use surf, or the surf HM. The nice couple who ran the business had been surprised. For years, only a set number of trainers had won. He was one too many.

Ash was a bit surprised by this. He was originally worried about the trainers. His battles had been so hard, and he had a pokegod. How could another trainer beat all the gym leaders too? After all, Falkner had those weird birds that Midnight had said(?) were clones, and Morty had that giant gengar that almost beat Midnight. The other trainers must have super strong pokemon and be great trainers. But once he learned that the other new trainers were a set number each year, he got a bit suspicious. Still, he would make sure to see how strong the trainers were before he jumped to conclusions.

It wasn't long before he came to a cave, and no way around. He went in and saw a huge waterfall. How could he get up that?

He touched his pokeballs. The lapras could surf, but he knew it didn't know waterfall. The couple had mentioned that since the normal number of trainers had gone through, and taken the normal number of lapras, they were out of lapras that knew waterfall. Of course, they didn't say why it mattered. Midnight might be able to fly, but the cave didn't have a very high ceiling. And if anything happened, they would plunge into the waterfall.

"Midnight, I choose you!" he called.

"Mid mid!" she said cheerfully, appearing. 

"Midnight, I need to get up that waterfall. Do you know how I can do that?"

Midnight looked. Yes, there was a way. She knew she could get up there, but how? Oh!

She quickly flipped Ash onto her back. "Midnight, what are you doing?" he asked, worried.

"Midnight mid!" she said, then raced towards the water and waterfall. Ash noticed she didn't seem to be getting ready to fly.

"Midnight! You don't know surf! What are you doing!"

"Mid!" Midnight agreed, speeding up. Right before they entered the water, Ash closed his eyes, knowing something bad would happen.

A few seconds later, Ash opened his eyes again. He wasn't in the water, for some reason. Looking down, he jerked. Midnight was running swiftly across the water, straight up the waterfall!

At the top, without slowing down, Midnight turned, sliding across the water and hitting the side of the cavern. She ran along this sideways, then leaped off, running down a second waterfall, across the water at the bottom, and out the cave.

Outside, Ash stepped shakily off as Midnight shook herself, getting rid of the droplets she had acquired from the spray of the falls.

Staring at her blindly, he asked "Midnight, did you just do that or am I going nuts?"

Ok everyone, how do you want the Johto League to work?

  1. Like in the game -Ash is challenged by trainers along Victory Road, then battles the Elite Four and the champion.
  2. Like on the TV show for the Kanto League -Ash battles many trainers to become a master, then fights the Elite Four and the champion.
  3. Quick version -Ash doesn't battle anyone on Victory Road, he just goes and fights the Elite Four and the champion.

This is not a vote. Some things are set, like Ash has to battle the Elite Four. But if enough people want me to have one of the three choices, I **may** do that. Then again, I may ignore everyone an just do whatever I want, but it's most likely that I do what the readers want.

Oh, and any reviews that start like:

On the show, the Johto League works like…

will probably be ignored. If I wanted to find out how it really worked, I'd just go online and check several hundred sites until I found one that was far enough ahead into the Japanese show that they had the results of the Johto League. Anyway, I can guess.


	34. A Strange Battle

Alright, two people wanted B, one wanted A and no one wanted C (I guessed you wouldn't)

Alright, two people wanted B, one wanted A and no one wanted C (I guessed you wouldn't). But I'm going to have him battle people on Victory Road now, and decide how the Johto League is organized later, because it's more interesting and less work.

Sorry about the delay. I'm dealing with schoolwork, pokemon crystal, TV and a neopet, so I've been busy and then I kept getting banned from the computer. Plus I'm working on three (ultra long) fics. I have about a hundred pages combined and I'm nowhere near done.. Still, I'll try to do this on a regular basis.

Ash walked down the dirt path. All that lay between him and being a pokemon master was walking to the end of this road. That and defeating the Pokemon League, but after all, he did have Midnight, so the walk currently seemed harder then the battles at the end of it.

"Hey you!" called a trainer. "Wanna battle before the Pokemon League?"

"Always!" replied Ash. Now was the perfect time to see how strong the trainers were.

"Ok then, how about three on three?"

"Fine with me."

"Go, bulbasaur!" she yelled.

"Go, Sneasel!"

"Bulba!" called the bulbasaur happily.

"Sne!" chirped Sneasel.

Ash looked at the bulbasaur. While you didn't have to evolve your pokemon as soon as possible, it did make them stronger. A super-powerful bulbasaur would make sense, like the one Ash Ketchem had used, but this bulbasaur didn't look that strong.

Confused, Ash pulled out is pokedex to check it's level.

"Level 32."

Politely, Ash bit down his yelp of surprise. Alright, so she had one weak pokemon. Maybe that just meant that she was using her weakest first. After all, Sneasel wasn't quite at level thirty yet. Still, if her bulbasaur was so weak, why hadn't she evolved it yet?

"Sneasel, use ice punch!"

"Esel!" she agreed, running at the grass pokemon. Her confidence had greatly improved since she had beaten Falkner's Noctowl.

"Bulba…" it groaned.

"Bulbasaur, use leech seed!"

"Sneasel, dodge it and use quick attack!"

Bulbasaur shot a seed at Sneasel, but she was already moving so fast from quick attack it missed. Sneasel rammed into the bulbasaur, fainting it.

Ash was surprised. To win you'd think this trainer would have been smarter then to use a slow-acting attack like leech seed against a pokemon with an element advantage, but oh well. Maybe it was just a rare mistake. No trainer was perfect all the time.

"Go, ivysaur!"

Ash blinked. Why was she using an ivysaur? Serious trainers almost never had the same pokemon on their team. He opened up his pokedex again to check it's level.

"Level 32."

Her second pokemon was the same level? Ash was starting to get a bad feeling about this.

"Sneasel, try your ice punch again!"

This time, the ivysaur dodged the attack.

"Ivysaur, use razor leaf!"

"Ivy!"

Sharp leaves flew at Sneasel, who managed to dodge most but got hit by a few.

"Good job ivysaur, keep it up!"

Ash was slightly surprised by this. The ivysaur was only doing marginal damage, as any halfway educated rookie trainer should have seen. What was going on?

"Sneasel, use faint attack so the leaves won't hit you and attack that ivysaur!"

"Sne!" Sneasel agreed.

The ivysaur and it's trainer, rather then try to figure out what they should do, simply kept up with the razor leaf attacks. Sneasel vanished, and the trainer gasped. The ivysaur looked around, trying to see it's opponent, before Sneasel smashed into it.

"Iveeee" it groaned and fainted.

"You cheated!" screamed the other trainer at the top of her lungs. "Your pokemon disappeared and got a cheap shot in because ivysaur didn't know where it was!"

"I did not! That's a legal move! Faint attack causes the pokemon to disappear and reappear by their opponent!" yelled Ash back, no quieter then her.

"Yeah right! You're probably just lying, you cheater!"

"I AM NOT A CHEATER!" Ash roared, pulling out his list of pokemon moves and throwing it to her. "Faint attack is right in there, and that list doesn't even have all pokemon moves!"

Grudgingly, she looked down the list, finding it. Without apology (unless you count not tearing the list to shreds apology), she threw it back to him and sent out her last pokemon.

"Venusaur!"

Ash was **slightly** startled by this new development. She had _three_ pokemon that were of the same exact kind? Pulling out his pokedex, he heard exactly what he expected.

"Level 32."

"Ha! I bet your little pokemon can't beat this guy!" she said. "Just 'cuz you taught it one ice move doesn't matter."

"You do know Sneasel has a type advantage, right?" said Ash, already knowing what the answer would be.

"It is? No, I didn't know. It's too hard to remember what each pokemon's name is, let alone type too. I just know common ones. Like pidgey and rattata and mankey are all normal types."

Ash refrained from correcting her. This looked bad. Still, who knew what the other trainers were like? Maybe she had just gotten in on a day when the gym leader's normal strong team was at a pokecenter or something. Out of the many who did that, perhaps on occasion one got all the badges.

"Sneasel, try your ice punch again!"

"Venusaur, use solar beam!

Ash started. She was using a two-turn attack **now**, rather then try to do damage? Sneasel could easily dodge the attack and then she wouldn't have done any damage for two turns!

Light began to gather on venusaur's flower. Sneasel ran up, smashing her icy fist into the venusaur's side.

"Again, then jump away and dodge the attack!"

Sneasel punched venusaur again, then ran off.

"Now, use solar beam!"

The venusaur aimed the beam at Sneasel, but she was too far away. The distance meant she had time to see it coming and jump out of the way.

"Oh well venusaur, if at first you don't succeed, try again! Use solar beam again!"

Ash sighed. This was incredibly stupid of her. If her venusaur managed to survive long enough to fire that attack, Sneasel would just dodge it again.

"Sneasel, use quick attack!"

Sneasel ran forward, hitting into venusaur but not doing much damage against the pokemon.

"Again, then use ice punch again!"

Sneasel rammed into venusaur, then punched it.

"Run! It's about to use solar beam!"

Sneasel zipped off.

"Venusaur, now!"

Venusaur roared and blasted at Sneasel once again, missing.

"Oh well, third time's the charm. Use solar beam again!"

Ash shrugged. If she wanted to make a fool of herself and give him an easy win, he guessed he shouldn't be annoyed by it.

"Sneasel, use ice punch one more time!"

Sneasel punched the venusaur, finally fainting it. While a powerful pokemon, it could only take just so much damage.

"Drat!" said the girl, walking over. "My name's Megan. What's yours?"

"I'm named Ash, after Ash Ketchem," Ash said proudly.

"Cool."

"So, um, you have a rather unusual team. Any reason why?"

"Oh, that's easy. I'm checking out pre- and post- evolution pokemon. While the earlier stages learn moves faster, they are weaker, just like the textbooks said."

"How…" Ash refrained from saying something like unprofessional or silly. "Informative. I'll remember that."

"Good luck!" she called after him as he walked off toward the Pokemon League.

Well, I'll try to have the next chapter out soon.


	35. Four Battles

Ok, I've though about it for a while and here's what I decided

Ok, I've though about it for a while and here's what I decided. I'm going to have him battle trainers along the way, and then go battle the elite four. Why? Do you people have any idea how much pointless work it would be for me to do a tournament? I would like to get all of this over with so I can get the more interesting things and finally stop writing an original trainer story. (really, I promise. Cool things will happen after the elite four. Honest)

This chapter will have multiple battles in it. Ash will battle four trainers.

Ash was alert as he walked down route 27 to the Pokemon League, totally focused on finding a pokemon trainer to battle.

However a pokemon trainer found him first.

"Hello," said the trainer. "My name is Blake. Wanna battle?"

"Sure," said Ash. "How many pokemon?"

"I've only got three pokemon, so how about three on three?"

Ash hid his shock. After all, if those three pokemon were better trained then normal, it would make sense.

"Go, magneton!"

Ash took out his pokedex. How strong was this one?

"Level 33."

This was looking bad. If all his pokemon were below L40, there was no way he could have _scratched_ most of the gym leaders' pokemon.

"Go, Sandslash!"

Blake didn't look anywhere near as worried as he should have been. Sandslash was ground and knew ground attacks. Electric attacks couldn't normally hit ground pokemon. Plus, both of magneton's types were weak against ground. Ash noticed all of this as further proof in his theory.

"Magneton, use sonic boom!"

"Sandslash, dig under the ground!"

Before magneton could attack, sandslash dug a hole. The sonic boom missed.

"Now!" yelled Ash. "Attack!"

Sandslash erupted from the ground, slamming into magneton. The super-effective ground move fainted the electric/steel combo.

A scornful thought appeared in Ash's mind._ That pokemon must have been horribly trained. It was higher level then Sandslash and shouldn't have fainted so easily, even with a type disadvantage._ Of course, he didn't say or even show this thought on his face to the other trainer.

"Oh well. Magneton, return, go quagsire!"

Ash pulled out his pokedex. Strangely, this quagsire was L31

Quagsire, being part water, would have the advantage over the ground type sandslash. Ash withdrew it and sent out Tsunami. The gyarados' water type would protect him from quagsire's water attacks, and his flying type would neutralize its ground attacks. Again, Blake did not seem to realize this. Blake further proved this with the first attack.

"Quagsire, use earthquake!"

"Tsunami, use thrash!"

The earth rumbled and shook, but Tsunami's body absorbed the shock waves without damage. He slithered forward, ramming into the quagsire.

"Keep it up Tsunami!"

"Use water gun!" cried Blake.

Tsunami hit the quagsire again, nearly stunning it. But at point-blank range it fired a powerful water gun attack. However, gyarados is part water. Fire doesn't burn a creature who swims in magma, and water doesn't hurt one who creates whirl pools for fun. 

"Now bite!" yelled Ash

"Use water gun again!"

The gyarados attacked quickly, chomping down on the far-slower quagsire, who flinched and was unable to attack.

"Finish it off with dragon rage!" cried Ash.

"Quagsire, use slam!"

Before the quagsire could slam into Tsunami, he unleashed a power-packed dragon rage on it. Quagsire fainted.

Groaning, Blake withdrew his pokemon. "Alright exeggcute, it's all up to you!"

The egg pokemon appeared in all it's…um…glory?

As far as Ash could tell, the pokemon had been sent out from strongest to weakest. Of course, appearances could be deceiving; such as with that famous bellsprout who nearly beat Ash in the Pokemon League Tournament, back when there **was** a Pokemon League Tournament. However, the pokedex told him his first guess was right.

"Level 31"

"Tsunami, return! Go, Scizor!"

Scizor was part bug, and bug attacks are strong against psychic and grass, plus grass attacks are weak against bug. Scizor was also part steel, which was strong defensively against both psychic and grass. Once again, Blake didn't seem to realize this.

"Exeggcute, use confusion!"

"Scizor, use fury cutter!"

The psychic attack did little damage against the steel pokemon, who began slashing in viciously at the grass/psychic creature.

"Exeggcute, try hypnosis!"

"Scizor, close your eyes!"

Exeggcute's eyes glowed but Scizor had already closed his own. Unfortunately, this meant that fury cutter's power went back to normal.

"Alright Scizor, start fury cutter again!"

"Sci!!!"

Once again, Scizor began slashing at exeggcute. The slow pokemon was unable to evade the attack.

"Use confusion again!"

Exeggcute mentally blasted Scizor again.

"Scizor, shake it off and keep on attacking!"

Without missing a beat Scizor continued to swipe at the egg pokemon.

"Exeggcute, try using reflect!"

"Scizor, keep it up!"

Before exeggcute could use reflect, Scizor slashed it hard and it fainted.

"Drat!" said Blake. "Oh well, good battle."

"Thanks. You did good too," replied Ash politely.

It wasn't long before he came across another trainer.

"Hi, would you like to battle?" said Ash.

"Sure. Use as many pokemon as you want," he said confidently.

"Okay."

"Go, sandslash!"

__

So, should I use Tsunami, who has an advantage, or one of my pokemon who hasn't battled yet, or my own sandslash, who has already battled?"

"Go, Sandslash!"

"Sandslash, use slash!" yelled Brian.

"Sandslash, counter with your own slash!" yelled Ash.

Both pokemon slashed at each other, but Ash's sandslash took more damage.

"Use slash again, sandslash!"

"Sandslash," cried Ash, "Use dig to escape the attack!"

Before Ash's sandslash could use dig, the other one managed to hit him with another powerful slash attack, fainting him.

"Sandslash, return, go, Tsunami!"

The huge water dragon roared, rearing up above the small sandslash, who looked slightly nervous.

"Slashh….." it moaned.

"Sandslash, use defense curl!"

"Tsunami, use bite!"

Sandslash curled into a ball, but that didn't save stop it from fainting after the gyarados bit it hard.

"Sandslash, return!" Brian looked miserable. "I only have one pokemon, but I thought I had trained it to beat anything…"

"Well, it did take out my own sandslash. I had to use two pokemon to beat it."

"Yeah, I guess so. Good luck at the Pokemon League!"

It wasn't long before Ash found, or was found by, still another trainer.

"My name's Gilbert, and I train psychic pokemon. I have three, so let's battle three on three!

"Go, starmie! Use thunderbolt!"

"Go, Moon, use crunch!" (a/n. No, umbreon cannot learn crunch, nor bite. Eevee learns bite, meaning espeon can get it, but umbreon does not naturally learn it. Since I think that's stupid, in this story umbreon can use both.)

Starmie's thunderbolt hit hard, but Moon lunged forward and crunched into it. The powerful and super-effective dark attack fainted the part-psychic pokemon.

"Starmie, return, go, Girafarig!"

"Moon, use crunch again!"

"Girafarig, use take down!"

Girafarig charged into Moon, but the umbreon fought back with another strong crunch attack.

"Girafarig, use agility!"(a/n. in the game girafarig can learn agility. However, the move agility in the game does not make it harder to hit that pokemon, something I don't agree with. So here I'm operating by the way the move works on the TV show)

Girafarig raced around, never staying in one place long enough for Moon to focus on it.

"Moon, use faint attack to hit it!"

Moon vanished and reappeared, hitting Girafarig.

"Now use crunch one more time and the battle's over!"

Before the girafarig could run away, Moon sank her teeth into it's side, and it fainted.

"Grr…go, exeggcute!

Another egg pokemon appeared in all it's, um, cuteness? Is there even a word for this?

"Okay Moon, crunch it!"

Once again, Moon crunched the opposing pokemon. The low-level, unevolved, part-psychic pokemon fainted.

"Return, exeggcute," he said, sighing. "I guess we need to do some more training."

Ash continued on, and was found by still another trainer.

"Hi, I'm Reena. Let's battle!"

"Great!"

"I've got three pokemon, so how about three on three?"

"No problem," said Ash, although he felt it was rather strange so many of the trainers had only three pokemon.

"Go, starmie!"

"Go, Moon!"

"Drat! You have a dark type!" said Reena. "What bad luck. Oh well, starmie, harden!"

"Moon, use bite!"

Starmie's defense increased, but Moon's super-effective bite still hurt it badly.

"Again, Moon!"

"Starmie, tackle!"

Starmie tackled Moon, but she bit it again, causing to flinch.

"Crunch!"

Moon crunched into starmie's crystal while it was still flinching from the last attack, and it fainted.

"Starmie, return, go, nidoqueen!"

The poison/ground, fully evolved pokemon appeared. Ash wisely withdrew Moon and sent out Scizor, because poison moves don't work on the steel type, plus nidoqueen mainly uses normal attacks, which can scarcely dent Scizor's metal armor.

"Scizor, use fury cutter!"

"What is this? The pokemon team best able to take on psychic pokemon? You have a bug/steel too?"

Reena's moment of disbelief cost her. Scizor began to attack while her nidoqueen waited for orders. Of course, it didn't take her long to notice and choose the attack.

"Nidoqueen, use double kick!"

Nidoqueen quickly kicked at Scizor, who shuddered under the super-effective attack but kept using fury cutter.

"Try fury swipes!"

"Scizor, keep it up! Don't stop!"

Nidoqueen swiped at Scizor, but even her sharp claws couldn't scratch through Scizor's steel coating.

"No! Nidoqueen, use body slam!"

Nidoqueen rammed into Scizor with its full body, but even that powerful normal attack failed to make much of an impression on Scizor, who continued to slash at her.

"Sci!!!" he cried as he sliced at the nidoqueen one more time. She fainted.

"No! Go starmie!"

"Scizor, do you want to take a break?"

"Izor!!!" he said angrily, shaking his head.

"Alright then, keep using fury cutter!"

"Sci!"

Scizor slashed at the second starmie, who tried to dodge but couldn't.

"Starmie, use surf!"

A huge tidal wave appeared out of nowhere, slamming into Scizor. Amazingly, he didn't stop attacking.

"Great job Scizor! You can do it!"

"Starmie, use surf again!"

A second wave hit Scizor, but it still kept slashing away at the starmie, who was now looking rather beat up.

"Don't stop using fury cutter! Just keep on attacking!"

"Starmie, use surf one more time!"

A third wave hit Scizor, who staggered back, but leapt right back and sliced at starmie again. It fainted.

"Drat! Starmie, return," said Reena, stalking off.

Scizor partially collapsed the moment that she was out of sight. "Sciiiii…"

"Scizor, are you okay?" asked Ash nervously. He didn't see any noticeable wounds. What was wrong?

"Scizor or!" insisted Scizor, standing back up.

Ash sighed, withdrawing him. "I hope I don't run into many more battles. My pokemon are going to be exhausted soon. Sandslash had fainted, Sneasel, Tsunami and Moon were weakened, and now Scizor had something really wrong with him and shouldn't be used again until I know what it is and have healed him."

There! All of those trainers are really on Route 26, in that order. And they all have those really weak pokemon. Is everyone satisfied or do you want me to write out the rest of the battles?(there are five more). Or, do you want me to just have Ash go to battle the Elite Four?


	36. Rival

Hi everyone, sorry it took so long.

I am doing two (t w o, not three, four and especially not five) battles before the Elite Four.

Ash walked along. A nice woman had rested his pokemon before he ran into any more trainers, and he was glad. He didn't like sending out weakened pokemon to fight rested ones. Now that his pokemon were healed, he could face battles without worry again.

Sadly for poor Ash, and happily for his pokemon, no more trainers appeared as he walked along. He didn't see anyone until he say the large gateway to Victory Cave (a/n. Technically, in the game, the cave is Victory Road, something I don't agree with because it has no trainers and so you don't have any tough battles. Plus, it really isn't a road.)

Right as Ash was about to walk through the door, a girl ran up to him. "Hey, I challenge you to a one on one pokemon battle!"

Of course, this was because she only had one pokemon. Ash noticed she only carried one pokeball on her belt and wasn't carrying a backpack, so she wouldn't be able to catch new pokemon if she ran into them.

"I'm the strongest of the trainers here, which is why I'm the furthest up," she bragged. "You must be pretty good to get this far, but there's no way you'll get past me and rapidash! Go!"

A healthy-looking rapidash appeared.

Since this was probably going to be his last battle before the Elite Four, he pulled out his pokedex.

"Level 36."

Ash sighed almost silently. There was no way even she could have beaten the gym leaders, even if a few of them, like Falkner, hadn't fought as hard as they had against him.

So, which pokemon should he use? Tsunami would have an advantage, but he had already gotten plenty of battle experience. In fact, why not use Midnight, who hadn't battled yet but would probably be the most needed in his upcoming battles?

"Go, Midnight!" said Ash.

Rather strangely, the girl did not seem surprised by Midnight. Ash could guess why. She probably didn't know every pokemon, so didn't realize that Midnight was a brand-new pokemon.

"Rapidash, stomp!"

"Midnight-" Ash shrugged. This looked like it would be easy. "Do whatever you want. Have fun!"

Now, by the laws of the pokemon world, it is demanded that Ash, for being so proud, should suffer. Usually this suffering would be losing the battle. Unfortunately, Ash has a pokegoddess, and has every right to a little (and a lot) of pride. He was, in fact, right, it would be easy. The difference between a pokegod and a normal pokemon is rather large.

Midnight flapped her wings lightly. The rapidash, no matter how fast it ran, was unable to charge at Midnight. However, the swift winds blew the flames into a bonfire.

"Rapidash, use flamethrower!"

Rapidash spat a raging blast of fire at Midnight, who simply flapped her wings harder, increasing the power of the flame and driving it back at the pokemon.

Megan was infuriated. "Rapidash, use take down!"

Rapidash once again charged at Midnight, who was growing bored with this. She simply hit the ground with one paw and an earthquake began, knocking out the rapidash, who was weak against ground attacks.

But, in accordance to the laws of the pokeworld, Ash also got hit by the attack and was tossed around for a moment plus badly bruised.

Still, Ash wasn't upset. Midnight had learned a new attack, after all. A few (hundred) bruises were worth that!

Ash proudly walked past Megan and into the Pokemon League Gatehouse.

The guard, who had been resting, sat up. "Do you have all the eight badges of Johto?" he asked suspiciously. He knew that the gym leaders only let in a set number of trainers to fight the Elite Four, after all, and one extra trainer had already come by.

"Yep!" said Ash proudly, showing off his eight badges.

"Okay, go on through."

Blinking slightly, Ash walked out of Victory Cave into the bright sunlight. His pokemon had battled hard within the cavern. The wild pokemon in there were strong and aggressive, but his pokemon had risen to the challenge. Now, though they were quite tired, they had also gained many levels and learned a few new attacks.

Still, he wasn't in any shape for a hard battle. Thankfully, he knew there was a pokecenter right before the Pokemon League and the Elite Four.

And, right up ahead, he could see the majestic building. He quickened his step as he hurried toward the Elite.

"Hey, loser, how did **you** get this far?"

Ash looked over to see Andy just ahead of him.

"Was the guard asleep? How on earth did you get all the way here?" demanded Andy.

"I have all the badges. I assume you do as well?"

"Better believe it! Why don't you just turn around now. I'm going to be a master, so you should just admit it and leave. Why go through all the trouble of battling the Elite Four and the Champion if I'm just going to beat you at the end?"

"For once, you have a point. Only one of us can be the best. Why don't we just fight now to decide who goes on?" Ash knew that his pokemon were weak from fighting in the cave, but he had Midnight. She hadn't done badly against Andy's high-level magmar and now she had been trained and was much stronger.

"Sure. Let's fight with no switching. Sneasel, go!"

Who should I send out? wondered Ash. I guess I could use Sneasel, but the other sneasel would have a resistance to most of my sneasel's attacks. Tsunami did know flamethrower, and if I send out Midnight she'll probably remember how to use fire blast or learn sacred fire on the spot. Midnight, though, should be saved until the end -Andy's magmar would be even stronger then before, and flying is weak against ice anyway. Scizor would really be the best choice for fighting the sneasel, since dark and ice attacks are bad against steel and bug attacks are strong against dark. And, of course, sneasel had strong attack and speed, and bad defense, while Scizor had strong attack, medium speed and great defense. But more importantly, would he be okay battling at all?

"Go, Scizor!" he said, summoning Scizor next to him. "Scizor, do you want to battle? You haven't gotten as much experience as the other pokemon, and you should be fine against a sneasel."

In answer, Scizor leapt in front of his trainer. "SCI!"

Well, Scizor _seems_ fine, thought Ash. I'll just be ready to withdraw him if anything seems wrong.

"Sneasel, ice punch!"

"Scizor, dodge and slash!"

Sneasel raced at Scizor but the steel/bug pokemon just managed to get out of the way in time. As the sneasel flew past, Scizor managed to slash it.

Sneasel staggered for an instant, but managed to whip around and face Scizor, ready for the next command.

"Sneasel, use ice beam!"

"Scizor, dodge again and try to use slash!"

Andy's sneasel shot a powerful ice beam at Scizor. He tried to dodge but the sneasel scored a direct hit.

Scizor staggered slightly but didn't miss a beat, lunging at the dark/ice pokemon and slashing it again. The second slash attack seemed to chop a large block off of the sneasel's hit points, because it staggered again and nearly collapsed. Andy looked horrified.

"How could your scizor do that to my sneasel? I trained it to beat anything!" Andy cried.

"Apparently it can't beat something that has a double type advantage. Ice and dark moves will only have half their normal effect, and normal moves are the same. Plus, my scizor has super strong attack power and your sneasel has a very low defense. You don't stand a chance!" gloated Ash.

"C'mon sneasel, try a slash attack of your own!"

"Sne!!"

Sneasel raced at Scizor once again, hitting the steel pokemon with little effect.

"What the…" gasped Andy.

"Didn't you hear what I just said? Normal moves only do half damage too, and Scizor has great defense!"

"Grrr…Sneasel, use ice beam!"

"Scizor, just slash once more!"

The powerful ice beam attack hit Scizor, but he ignored it and slashed at the sneasel again, fainting it.

"Sneasel, return, go-"

Ash stiffened. What if Andy used Magmar? It would be silly to use your strongest pokemon this early in the match, but fire was strong against both steel and bug. Scizor would be toasted just by being within five feet of that fiery monster!

"-magneton!"

Ash breathed a sigh of relief. "Scizor, do you want to keep fighting?" It wouldn't be good to have only been able to beat one pokemon before you had to withdraw your own.

"Scizor!" said Scizor, nodding. 

"Okay, try using slash!"

Magneton shocked Scizor and Scizor slashed it, but neither attacks showed noticeable damage.

Andy had chosen a pokemon who would be resistant to normal, steel and bug attacks, but his magneton's attacks would also be weak against scizor. It seemed like a stalemate. Magneton had high special attack power to boost it's electric attacks, but Scizor had high attack power to boost it's physical attacks.

Suddenly Ash got an idea. "Scizor, use double team!"

Three more scizors appeared. Magneton tackled but it was confused and moved slower then normal. The scizor it was aiming for avoided it's attack.

"Now use focus energy!"

All three scizors glowed for a moment, focusing their power.

"Magneton, tackle!"

Magneton tackled one of the phantom scizors, who vanished.

"Now sword dance!"

The two scizors whirled for a moment.

"Magneton, tackle once more and the double team attack is over!"

Once again, magneton tackled and the last phantom disappeared.

"I guess I beat you and you double team, Ash!"

"So what? Now my scizor is super strong. Besides, Scizor, use double team again!"

Horrified, Andy watched as two new scizors appeared. While he tried to think of how to beat them, Ash attacked.

"Scizor, slash!"

All three of the scizors slashed, and the real one's attack hit home. Magneton faltered.

"And again!"

Again, all three scizors slashed and the boosted attack power took its toll on magneton.

"Magneton, use lock on so you won't miss!" ordered Andy, remembering the move.

Magneton glared about, focusing on one of the three scizors.

"Scizor, slash!"

All of the scizors attacked. As they started to withdraw, Andy yelled "Use zap cannon now!"

A powerful yellow beam hit one of the scizor. The rest vanished as Scizor let out a loud cry of pain. He staggered forward towards the magneton, badly paralyzed.

"Scizor, return!" called Ash. Oh no. That move might have really hurt him. Still, he had a battle to finish.

Now who should he use? Midnight knew fire attacks, of course, but once again he would need her to deal with magmar and like before, her part-flying type gave her the disadvantage. Not even a fool would send out Tsunami, even if he did know a fire attack, since water/flying pokemon had a double weakness. So who-

Ash felt like kicking himself. Sandslash, of course! He had already used Sandslash against a magneton, how could he have forgotten that ground moves were good against both electric and steel, no to mention that ground pokemon couldn't get hit with electric attacks?

"Go, Sandslash!"

"Magneton, use tackle!"

"Sandslash, dig!"

Magneton tackled Sandslash but it then dug into the ground.

While Andy tried to remember what attack would hit a digging pokemon, Sandslash appeared and knocked out his magneton.

"Magneton, return, go-" Andy paused. He didn't have any water or grass pokemon, and his sneasel had already fainted. All he had was Gengar, who was weak against ground (a/n Yes, gengar, being part poison, is weak against ground. It IS part poison, even if you never noticed it before. That's why psychic pokemon slaughter them. And yes, ground IS strong against poison. I'm not nuts.), golbat, who would have an advantage but not much of one, since Sandslash didn't rely on ground attacks alone, and finally he had a kadabra. He knew Ash had an umbreon, plus that other weird pokemon was a dark type, so he shouldn't save his psychic pokemon.

"Go, kadabra! Use psychic!"

"Sandslash, dig underground to avoid it!"

Before Sandslash could escape, he was caught in the grip of the kadabra's powerful psychic. Already weaken from his battles in the cave, Sandslash fainted.

"Sandslash, return, go Sneasel!"

Andy glared. So, Ash had a sneasel too? Well, he would beat it easily. Andy's kadabra had been taught moves to beat any type. 

"Sneasel, use faint attack!"

"Kadabra, use dynamic punch!"

Sneasel vanished and reappeared, striking the kadabra and causing it to stagger. Still, it struck back with its dynamic punch. At close range the normally inaccurate move hit hard. Sneasel fainted, the combination of the kadabra's high level, her weakness to fighting moves and that fact that she was already tired from her previous battles proving disastrous.

"Return, Sneasel, go Moon! Try to stay out of range of the kadabra's fighting attacks!"

Darkmoon stared at the kadabra. She couldn't attack without getting in range of the kadabra's fighting moves, but kadabra couldn't hurt her with its psychic moves at a distance. If she stayed out of range, it couldn't attack her but she couldn't attack it. Of course, if the kadabra knew other moves…

"My kadabra doesn't just know fighting moves! Use zap cannon, kadabra!"

Kadabra formed a ball of energy looking something like a cross between a hyper and solar beam, then shot the electricity at Moon, who dodged the attack easily.

"Try shadow ball!"

The kadabra formed a second ball, black this time, and hurtled it at the umbreon. The attack hit but her natural resistance against ghost moves and high defense prevented it from doing much damage.

Ash was worried. Moon was doing great but he didn't know how to attack. Moon couldn't stay defensive forever. She had to attack!

What attacks could Moon use? Faint attack, bite, crunch, all of them would force Moon to get into close range. Quick attack **might** allow her to retreat after attacking, but for how long?

" Moon, if you can think of a way of fighting, do it!" called Ash. An umbreon should know her own attacks better then him, after all.

"Bre," answered Moon. Her rings let off a brilliant flash, partially blinding the kadabra. Opening her mouth she spat out tiny stars that seemed to be made of light at the psychic pokemon.

"Kadabra, recover!"

Kadabra glowed, starting to heal the damage. Instantly Moon lunged and Crunched down on its side. It fainted.

"Kadabra, return, go golbat!"

"Alright Moon, try a faint attack!"

"Golbat, use supersonic!"

Before Moon could go anything, the golbat sent out a high-pitched cry. Moon stopped in her tracks, franticly flattening her long, sensitive ears against her head and covering them with her front paws.

"Great job golbat, now use wing attack!"

Golbat dove in at the dark pokemon, smashing its wings against her.

"Moon, use faint attack!"

Moon looked up at the golbat, about to bite it, but the ringing in her ears was so distracting…she just couldn't focus on anything. Turning, she noticed Ash had his mouth open and was apparently saying something, but she couldn't hear anything. What was going on?

With Moon confused, the golbat managed to hit her several more times before she began to fight back. While her unheard trainer kept yelling at her to use faint attack and not knowing why she was just lying there, she suddenly lashed out with a powerful bite attack. She caught the golbat's wing in her mouth and bit down hard, shaking the golbat back and forth and ripping the flesh. Andy heard bone snap and quickly withdrew his pokemon.

"What's wrong with your pokemon? It just broke my golbat's wing!" yelled Andy.

"It was just an accident. She must have been badly confused from your attack earlier," said Ash coolly. Still, this did disturb him. Was Moon bloodthirsty? After all, she was the only one who didn't die in the pokemon center of all the sick pokemon…No, Moon wouldn't do that…would she?

Andy didn't notice his rival's inner monologue. "Fine. Go, gengar! Use thunderpunch!"

The ghost pokemon gave Moon a single electric punch, but it was enough to faint the confused and exhausted umbreon.

"Moon, return, go, Tsunami!" Ash hated to have to send out the water/flying pokemon against this new opponent who had just used an electric attack, but what else could he do? He had to save Midnight for last.

"Gengar, use thunderpunch again and that weakling will fall at your feet!"

Tsunami roared in anger at the insult and reared up, towering over the far-smaller ghost pokemon. The gengar stared up at it in terror.

"Tsunami, use-"

Tsunami suddenly struck at the ghost. How dare that pokemon's trainer say he was weak! He would crush this pathetic ghost with ease! His fangs sank into the gengar's sofe gaseous form in a powerful bite attack.

"C'mon gengar, use shadow ball!"

The gengar quickly pulled away then tossed a black ball just like kadabra's at the water pokemon. Tsunami roared in pain -the gengar was stronger then he had thought, and his life was so close to the end anyway. Still he would be able to beat shrimp pokemon like this one for a while yet. Lunging, he bit into the ghost again, shaking it around and slamming it into the ground. It soon fainted.

"Return, gengar, go, Magmar!"

The spitfire pokemon looked at the huge water pokemon calmly, without the slightest bit of worry. Tsunami noticed the slight but also registered the magmar's immense power. He quickly called a surf attack, mentally summoning water out of nowhere. The resulting wave hit the magmar without effect.

[You are stronger then you should be,] commented the magmar. [considering your level. Death surrounds you. You should be dead, and you will die soon, but you are not old or injured. I can feel humans around you. Why?]

"Tsunami, try-"

"Ash, if Magmar wants to talk, let him," growled Andy. "You shouldn't care, since it will prolong the time until I crush you."

Tsunami stared in shock. How did the creature know such things? It was ancient and powerful, but still…[What do you mean?]

[And I sense the dark creature in you. Do you serve the beaten once-goddess?]

Tsunami felt nervous, a rare feeling for a powerful gyarados. Ever since he had left the lab and that human, he had not felt it, even in the face of death. But every instinct he had was warning him about this magmar, a fire pokemon. [How do you know such things? You may be old and high-level, but even then you should not know this.]

[I am no mere pokemon. The Dark Goddess fell by my hand. You and your kind can no longer even remember what transpired on that fateful day. The fool. She forgot that flame is the enemy of shadow. She did not know that I would betray her.]

Few pokemon knew much of the ancient goddess. She had died long, long ago, and her main followers, the dark pokemon, were to undergo many periods when mass hysteria caused people to slaughter them. Bird pokemon rarely conversed with land-bound ones, so they did not preserve the legend among the more numerous grounded pokemon. And Tsunami did not have wild pokemon to tell him the old tales. Few free pokemon were introduced to Prof. Hemlock's lab. He and Darkmoon had known **of** Midnight, and that she had died, but no more. And so he did not understand what the magmar was alluding to.

Tsunami did a gyarados version of a shrug, the muscles of his back rippling. [The Goddess is back. She is strong. I live only by her grace.]

[Don't feel too safe around her. She is a demon. She may grant life, but she also takes it without a second thought. Anger her and you will regret it] warned the magmar [do nothing to her and you may still regret it, please her and yet you may still regret it. The stronger she gets, the more dangerous she becomes. Her strength is our weakness. She thinks nothing of the Lessers.]

The water pokemon shrugged again in dismissal.

The magmar looked at him again, a cold, calculating stare. Tsunami suppressed a shudder. It was unnerving, when most fire pokemon were so impulsive and hot-tempered. [And if you serve the Dark Goddess of Death, if you serve that demon, if you gloat that she has let you live because you are her pet, then you deserve your fate all the more.]

Tsunami heard the threat in the magmar's voice, but before he could react the magmar lunged, delivering a lightning-quick thunderpunch. A second afterward, the magmar regretted not hitting as hard as possible. He was conserving his power for the once-goddess, and did not expect that nearly-gone Lesser to be able to survive that attack, let alone take it with so little damage. Even that patched creature would be able to heal his attack and would not die. Before he could remedy his mistake and kill the gyarados, Ash withdrew the fainted water dragon and sent out Midnight.

[You] hissed Midnight.

[Well, Destroyer, the time to finish our little game approaches. First tell me, though: How did you come back?]

Midnight shrugged. [I don't know. I don't remember. I am and am not here]

[What are you saying?]

[I'm not here, not fully. It can go either way.]

[What do you mean?]

Midnight laughed bitterly. [I don't know. I am and am not. Some of my abilities are here, a tiny bit of my power, a few of my memories. That is all. I do remember you, but not much else]

[So this will be easy?]

[Oh, did you think I meant that? No, you will just last longer then normal. You are just a Lesser with some of the power of a Higher added to you and a long life. You will never become a true Higher.]

The magmar snorted. [And I sense that **you** are a Higher who has, abet temporarily, gotten weakened somehow and gone closer to a Lesser. We are even, save that **I** am higher-level. Yes, given time, you will finish and change into a full Higher -ah, is that what happened? You or one of your followers, since the legendaries are not doing anything now, must have somehow changed some other poor pokemon into a form close enough to yours to summon your spirit into the vessel. Still, I don't sense their mind there, but no matter. At any rate, I will not give you the time to recover. Had I killed you at my first chance it would have been easy, but circumstances interfered. You still are too weak to beat me!] he said, then bolted to the side and hit her with a fire blast. The battle was on.


	37. Abyss

Magmar hit her with a fire blast. Midnight reared up in response, flapping her wings and creating a powerful twister attack.

The attack hit without effect over Magmar, who responded with flamethrower. Midnight blocked with her wings then sent a thunderbolt at him.

Again there was no noticeable effect. Magmar then raced at her, hitting her with a thunderpunch. 

Midnight howled up to the sky. Dark clouds quickly began to form. In moments, a light rain began.

The magmar looked up in surprise, and Midnight took advantage of his distraction to hit him with steel wing. Magmar countered with a toxic attack

Midnight dodged it and flew upward, then dove back down at him. The fly attack hit dead on but the fire pokemon didn't even flinch. At point-blank range it hit her with another fire blast. Now Midnight was weakened and burned, yet her opponent still showed no signs of even feeling her attacks.

Midnight bit Magmar, then winced in pain from her burn. As he tackled her, Midnight used a quick haze to rid herself of the burn.

Magmar tried another toxic attack, which Midnight dodged again. Panting, she spat out a powerful bubblebeam attack. Although Magmar still seemed uninjured, the attack at least reduced his speed.

Which meant it would be okay to try to hit him with a normally inaccurate hydro pump. Midnight noticed with annoyance that her rain dance attack had just faded, so the water attack didn't do extra damage

Ash stared out as the two powerful pokemon danced around each other. Before he could even think of an attack to tell her to use, she had already attacked and counter-attacked the magmar, so he had given up thinking of advice and was just watching and hoping.

On the other side of the battleground, Andy watched with bloodlust as Magmar pounded into Midnight.

The blast from the hydro pump did not more damage then the last ones. Magmar's next thunderpunch paralyzed her and she had to waste her turn using haze again.

Well, this wasn't working. If direct attacks had no effect, maybe it was time to change strategies, though Midnight. But some attacks do a set amount of damage. Now, what were they…?

Magmar took advantage of Midnight's moment of thought to hit her with a flamethrower and thunderpunch. Midnight then-

Ash and Andy watched in surprise as she sent a small seed at the magmar, who was too surprised himself to stop it. The seed quickly sprouted and dug its tendrils into Magmar, sucking out his energy.

The magmar growled in pain but wasn't distracted. He quickly heated the surrounding area, baking the seed.

Midnight then reared and hit the ground hard, creating an earthquake. The magmar still showed no signs of weakening, countering with fire punch.

Suddenly Midnight got an idea. She ran at the fire pokemon and bit into him with super fang, halving his hit points. In response the fire pokemon somehow managed to use synthesis to heal.

[You cannot beat me. You cannot match **my** power.] laughed the magmar, hitting her with cross chop. Midnight staggered.

So how could she beat him? He was too quick to try an automatic knockout attack, and besides, those didn't work on legendaries so it might not work on him.

The magmar laughed again cruelly. [Don't worry. This time I'll make sure you die. And when I'm done with you I swear I'll hunt down every last one of your followers so this will never happen again. I'm sure I can create enough hysteria to hunt down the dark pokemon. After all, humans would kill them even if I didn't frame them as killers. And then I'll kill the flying pokemon, and all the rest.]

[You could never do that!] screamed Midnight in anger.

[Oh, not before, not really. But I never had any reason to before anyway. Now that the other legendaries are captured, no one will be able to stop me. And I really don't need to kill every last one. All I need to do is kill them before they can pass on your legend. A couple of decades of that and your name will be forgotten for all eternity. As a bonus, after that destruction and after killing you, of course, I might even be strong enough to take out another of the legendaries, especially if it was weakened. And if I kill the legendaries I will be the strongest creature in existence] gloated Magmar, hitting her with a karate chop.

Midnight glared at him in fury. The magmar paused momentarily, watching her eyes glow blood red, then fade to black.

She spread her wings, seeming to glow with dark flames. [I will never let you do that. Regular attacks may not harm you, but you forget what I am.] The magmar took an involuntary step back, staring at her. [I am the keeper of death. If I want something dead] she hissed [it dies.]

At that moment, Ash looked up. Dark thunderclouds had just covered the sky, and they weren't normal. It was getting really dark, and he thought he had just seen a glimpse of the moon, but it was day! What was happening?

[Abyss!] roared Midnight, and the shadows that surrounded Magmar rose up and engulfed him. A moment later, the clouds drew back and Midnight toppled to the ground in a faint. Magmar had vanished.

Ash didn't wait to see what Andy would do. Frankly, he didn't much care. "Midnight, return!" he yelled, then raced toward the Pokemon League HQ and a pokemon center.

The place was dark. Two figured could be seen standing in the darkness, though. Although there was no light, both were clearly illuminated against the black. One was a large, black winged creature that looked identical to Ash's Midnight. The other was a dark haired girl whose black eyes watched the midnight closely. She spoke first.

"What happened? Did the masterball destroy me?"

[No, but since all you are now is Midnight's human thoughts, and the masterball erased most of them, you are close enough to gone.]

"But she remembered when he played the song," argued the girl. "Just for a moment, yes, but still, she remembered."

[She may remember bits of her former life, but not your persona. You will never have her mind again.] The black creature shrugged. [If it is any consolation, it would have happened anyway. When her memories began to return, they were mine, not yours. Under normal circumstances, you would have just faded away. Your memories would have remained, in a way, but your viewpoint would have slowly changed until your human side disappeared. Familiar things will make her remember momentarily, but even if dark pokemon did not have such trouble with machines, you would have faded.]

"I wasn't fading before. I could have had years to find a way to reverse it!" wailed the girl.

[You were disappearing even then. That is why you did not think to tell anyone you were human, why rather then explain you ran, why you could understand pokemon. Midnight's instincts -my instincts- were already taking over. The masterball may have changed the way it would happen, but not the end result. Rather then fading slowly away, you were nearly destroyed. But you see, all that means is that there is less of you to fade now. The longer she stays out of the masterball, the more of me appears, and the more of you, but there is so very little left of you anyway.]

"Then stop it! Leave me be! Leave here!" screamed the girl. "Why would he do this to me?!"

[I am not the original midnight. I only exist here. Midnight will get my memories, but she will not become the original one. I am just the midnight persona, the base instincts and memories. When any creature is turned into another, this happens, but when a creature becomes a legendary, their original self fades. Mewtwo didn't mean to do this. He did not choose your form. He could have turned you into a rattata or such, but simply specified a strong pokemon and let your nature decide.]

"I didn't choose this!"

[I didn't say that. I do not know what the trait is that decides what one creature will change into. The original did, and perhaps Midnight will learn, but all I know is it was not a conscious decision.] The midnight shrugged again. [It is not my choice, it is not yours. Who knows why this happened. Perhaps the clearest explanation would be thus: the world needed another one. So, by chance, Mewtwo happened by a girl who would become one. By chance, a boy caught her and a man took her feather, so that the psychic one may appear. The balance **must** be restored. Before the Chosen One came, the balance was crumbling. When he caught almost all of them, the balance was nearly destroyed. That is the way of this world.]

Okay, I meant to do the pokemon league battles too, but I'm going to do them in the next chapter(writing six battles is HARD). This should give you enough to think on for the moment. 


	38. Elite Four

All right, I'm finally going to do all five battles. Sorry for the delay. And all of you had better appreciate the immense amount of willpower I had to put into the stupid thing.

Oh, and Lance only has five pokemon in this.

Ash took a deep breath. This was it. If he won, he would be a champion. If he lost, he would be a failure, his whole life's dream destroyed. He had Midnight, of course, but even that couldn't quiet the butterfrees who were swarming in his stomach. Then he walked in through the gate.

On the other side of the room stood the trainer known as Will. He trained psychic pokemon, meaning that Ash should be able to make it through here more or less in one piece, no matter how strong the pokemon were. He had, after all, three dark pokemon and a steel. Ash had already decided to use Darkmoon for this battle. Midnight should be saved until the very end.

"Go, xatu!"

"Go, Moon!"

Ash noticed a faint flicker of fear over Will's mostly impassive face. It would seem Xatu couldn't deal well with pokemon totally immune to psychic moves.

"Xatu, use nightshade!"

"Moon, faint attack then crunch!"

Xatu shot black energy at Moon, but the psychic bird's level was not high enough to take a large toll on Moon's many hit points. Moon vanished, slammed into the xatu then bit it hard. It fainted.

Will paused, considering. Apparently his team had no pokemon to combat a dark type. While it was true they were rare, Ash still felt it was foolish to take such a huge risk.

"Go, slowbro! Use curse!"

The slowbro glowed slightly.

Ash had heard about curse. For any type other then ghost, the move increased attack and defense while lowering speed. In most situations this was a good idea, but Moon's dark attacks wouldn't be weakened since they were a special attack.

"Moon, use bite!"

Moon lunged and bit the slowbro, who was unable to evade or even partially evade the attack due to its low speed. It flinched and Ash saw his chance.

"Now use crunch!"

Moon sank her teeth into the slowbro's hide again, and the pokemon fainted.

"Go, exeggutor! Use sunny day!"

That meant that either Will was an idiot or he was about to use solar beam. Sunny day powered up fire moves, but it also speeded up solar beam.

"Moon, return, go Gyarados! Use flamethrower!"

"No! Hurry and use solar beam!"

Before the huge, palmlike pokemon could fire its devastating solar beam, the gyarados unleashed its flamethrower. Exeggutor fainted.

"Go, xatu!"

"Use thunder, Tsunami!"

Before Will could even give an order, his second xatu fell to the ground, smoking slightly.

"Go, jynx!"

It was a stupid choice, since ice is weak against fire moves and Tsunami had just used flamethrower, but she was his last pokemon.

"Use powder snow!" yelled Will, apparently hoping Tsunami might get frozen. At this stage, it was pretty much the only chance he had of taking the gyarados down.

Jynx sent a weak flurry of snowflakes at the huge gyarados. Tsunami didn't even bother to acknowledge the attack. Before Ash could give the order for flamethrower, Tsunami bit into the jynx, shaking her like an arcanine into a faint.

Will looked furious, but there was nothing he could do to stop Ash from walking through the next door into the chamber of Koga.

The last battle had been quick, but Will was the weakest of the Elite Four and Ash had a type advantage.

"So, you have beaten Will?" spoke the purple-robed ninja at the other side of the forested room rhetorically. "You will not find me so easy," he said confidently, sending out an ariados.

Remembering Midnight's last encounter with this bug pokemon, Ash wasn't going to send her out this time. "Go, Tsunami! Roast that bug with a flamethrower!"

"Ariados, use spiderweb to ensnare that overgrown worm!" snarled Koga.

Ariados spat out globs of webbing at the water snake, but they were burnt to a crisp along with the bug itself.

"Go, crobat! Use wing attack!"

A large crobat appeared, instantly hitting Tsunami with its wings.

"Tsunami, use thunderbolt!"

A bolt of lightning went through the part-flying bat and it fell to the ground in a faint.

"Go, muk!"

"Tsunami, return, go Scizor!"

"Muk, use hyper beam!"

Ash flinched, not sure if Scizor could withstand the powerful normal attack even with a type resistance. But Scizor was still standing without apparent injury when the attack faded.

"Okay Scizor, use sword's dance and then slash!"

Scizor whirled, increasing his attack power, then slashed at the huge pokemon several times, until the huge blob of toxins had recovered the energy lost in hyper beam. But the muk's body simply absorbed each attack without any noticeable effect.

"Use sludge bomb!"

The muk tossed a glob of its body at Scizor, but the toxic sludge just rolled off Scizor's armor.

"Don't you know steel is immune to poison?" gloated Ash. Very few people knew much of anything about steel pokemon, really, since there were only six of them. Still, Koga specialized in poison pokemon, so he should have remembered. "Now finish it off with your own hyper beam!"

A beam of pure energy hit the muk, and it fainted.

"Go, forretress!" called Koga, the bug/steel pokemon appearing.

"Return, Scizor, go Tsunami! Roast that bug with flamethrower!"

"Use spikes!" ordered Koga.

The pinecone-like pokemon sent out hundreds of spikes before being engulfed by the flames.

"Go, venomoth! Use sleep powder!"

The venomoth flapped its huge wings, and a blue powder fell onto Tsunami. He fell asleep.

"Tsunami, return, go Scizor!"

"Sci!" he yelled and before Ash could give a command he jumped up and clamped his claws onto the venomoth's wings. The right one tore slightly under the metal claw attack. Scizor leapt free as the moth fell, and Koga recalled it right before the venomoth hit the ground.

The battle won, the furious Koga had no choice but to allow Ash through the now-open doors.

Bruno might well be the hardest, Ash reflected as he walked gingerly toward the huge man, the extreme heat from the lava shimmering in the air. Four of his pokemon would be at a disadvantage.

"So, you have gotten this far?" asked Bruno. "No matter. My pokemon always train in the extreme. That is how we become strong. You cannot match our superior might! Go, hitmontop!"

An odd creature that looked vaguely like a very small human made out of spheres and lines with a point on its head appeared, somehow balancing on the point effortlessly in a headstand.

"Go, Sandslash!" called Ash. "Slash!"

"Hitmontop, detect!"

Hitmontop's eyes shined for an instant and he moved aside effortlessly as Sandslash's claw whistled by.

"Try again, Sandslash!"

"Use swift, hitmontop!"

The hitmontop spun around, and small golden white shining stars were tossed at Sandslash. He retaliated by swiping at the fighting pokemon, gaining a critical hit.

"Now use mach punch!" (a/n. No, hitmontop does not naturally learn that, but my walkthu listed that as an inherited move. If anyone would be kind enough to explain how that's possible please say so. Is it by sharking up a female hitmon or what? Because they're all male naturally.)

The hitmontop flipped onto his feet and rushed Sandslash, punching him. Sandslash unflinchingly slashed at the hitmon once again.

"Mach punch again!" ordered Bruno.

"Sandslash, earthquake attack!"

The hitmontop punched Sandslash again, but the ground pokemon hit the floor with his claws and the platform rumbled and split in an earthquake attack. The molten lava gurgled and bright red and yellow appeared in the cracks of the floor. The hitmontop was tossed around and fainted.

"Return, hitmontop, go, hitmonlee!" said Bruno.

"Sandslash, slash!"

"Hitmonlee, hi jump kick!"

The hitmonlee threw himself through the air, one leg outstretched. He hit Sandslash who shuddered under the blow but managed to slash back.

"Now, use double kick!" commanded Bruno.

"Sandslash, fury swipes!"

The hitmonlee kicked Sandslash quickly and brutally two times. The ground-type fainted.

"Sandslash, return, go, Tsunami!" said Ash, sending out his only other pokemon without a weakness to fighting moves. "Use thrash!"

Tsunami slithered toward the hitmonlee, hitting him with his tail.

"Hitmonlee, use mega kick!" ordered Bruno.

The hitmonlee kicked Tsunami hard and the water serpent's whole body shuddered, but the water pokemon tossed the fighting-type away with another thrash attack.

"Again!" called Bruno, and the kicking fiend kicked Tsunami again. In retaliation, the powerful creature grabbed the smaller pokemon, biting down hard and then tossing him off. Bruno's second pokemon fainted when he hit the ground.

"Return, hitmonlee, go, hitmonchan!"

"Return, Tsunami," called Ash, not wanting him to get hit by the hitmonchan's thunder punch. "Go, Scizor!" Scizor would be at a disadvantage, but he had higher defense then Moon and didn't have a double weakness like Tsunami or Sneasel. "Use slash!"

"Fire punch!" yelled Bruno. Ash gulped. Oh, right.

Scizor danced around the punches of the hitmon, managing to swipe him once without the steel pokemon getting hit in return.

"Hyper beam!" called Ash. It was Scizor's only offensive attack that didn't require him to get in close range, and if he kept as far away from the hitmonchan as possible the whole time, the short recharge period shouldn't be too bad.

Scizor focused, shooting a shining beam at the swiftly approaching hitmonchan before leaping out of the way.

"Use mach punch!" roared Bruno, getting annoyed by his pokemon's lack of accuracy, and the fighting pokemon sped up, racing at Scizor and hitting him before he could dodge.

"Use quick attack and then hyper beam!" called Ash.

Scizor slashed at the hitmonchan once before speeding away quickly. From a distance, he attacked with a second hyper beam. Bruno's hitmonchan fainted.

"Go, onix!" ordered Bruno.

"Scizor, steel wing!"

"Onix, bind!"

The onix wrapped its body around Scizor, and started to tighten its hold. Scizor shuddered, his clear and delicate wings shining a moment before hardening into silver-gray metal. The onix's coils pressed against the steel but it was not the deceptively thin slivers that gave but the huge blocks of the rock snake's body that began to crack. The onix attempted to uncurl and relieve the pressure but because the fractures were appearing on the inner side Bruno did not understand what was happening and he ordered: "Keep using bind! Don't stop until you've crushed that weak little bug."

The onix complied and continued its attempts to bind the steel pokemon, until the stone segments of the area began to break apart. The onix convulsively tightened its coils one more time before releasing Scizor and slumping to the ground in a faint.

Bruno looked furious as he recalled his pokemon. He only had one more pokemon now. "Go, machamp!"

"Scizor, return!" called Ash. "Go, Tsunami!"

Tsunami, looking tired but by no means weak, reared back and roared defiantly at the powerful fighting type before him. In response the machamp flexed its four arms, the muscles bulging under the skin.

"Tsunami, hydro pump!"

"Machamp, cross chop!"

The gyarados spat an incredibly high-powered stream of water at the machamp. A water gun attack could wear a hole through a block of granite easily. A hydro pump could blast a hole through solid steel easily.

But pokemon are not like people, and the machamp planted its legs firmly in the ground, placed two of its arms on the ground to help hold on, then advanced. Yes, the water was wearing it down, but keeping up a steady and fast stream of water was wearing Tsunami down as well. The machamp advanced, slowly but surely, on the gyarados, who redoubled his efforts to push it away. Fighting pokemon need to be in close range for most of their moves, but they are very good at using them. Tsunami knew that his best bet was to stay out of range of the machamp's attacks.

Despite his best efforts, the machamp got in range and lunged past the attack, wrapping two of its four arms around the serpent's back and squeezing while hammering into his body with its other two arms. Tsunami twisted around and tried to force it off with another hydro pump, but it dug its fingers into his flesh to hold on. Tsunami shuddered and stopped. The machamp made it clear that if it came off, a sizeable portion of his back came off too.

Tsunami switched tactics, belching fire at the superpower pokemon, but it still continued to attack. Training in just a few feet away from lava had given it a high tolerance for heat, and training as Bruno's pokemon had given it a high tolerance for pain.

Ash was paralyzed by the scene before him. The machamp had ripped out two fistfuls of Tsunami's skin when the gyarados had tried to blast it off the first time, and had simply dug its fingers back into the bleeding flesh. Tsunami's back was already turning an ugly purple under the beating he was taking. Pokemon battles weren't supposed to be like this!

Tsunami twisted and writhed around, trying to bite the machamp's head, but was unable to reach. He thrashed but the pokemon simply tightened its already agonizing grip and refused to be shaken off.

This was bad. Tsunami knew he couldn't use his physical attacks, and the machamp was virtually immune to his fire moves. Water attacks would only cause it to tear his back up more. He tried an ice beam, but the intense heat of the room weakened the attack.

The gyarados' body shuddered involuntarily under the unfaltering barrage of punches and chops. He didn't have much time before the skin on his back would give. And the only attacks he hadn't used were his electric attacks. If he tried to shock the machamp he'd get shocked as well.

Another shudder ran through his body as a particularly hard punch hit. He had to try. He started off with a low-power water gun, soaking the fighting pokemon and making it harder for the creature to breathe. Then Tsunami took a deep breath and sent a thunderbolt at the machamp.

The stunned machamp fainted. Tsunami twisted slightly to knock it off him. He was exhausted and his back was alternating between burning pain and numbness, but he had won. He reared back and roared in victory.

Ash was twitchy as he walked into the darkened room that housed the last of the Elite Four. He was confident that last battle with the machamp was violating League rules. Pokemon weren't supposed to try to rip each other apart. And the gloom in the new room was only adding to his sense of forbidding.

A women in the center of the room watched him. It was Karen, the last of the Elite Four, the trainer who specialized in dark pokemon. He was unable to get a good look at her due to the dim lighting before she wordlessly sent out a vileplume.

Normally Ash would send out Tsunami, but the fact the gyarados was even conscious after the beating he took was lucky enough. There was no way Tsunami could put up a fight. "Go, Darkmoon!"

The umbreon appeared. The instant she saw the vileplume, her long ears flattened down as she hissed slightly at the opposing plant pokemon. "Bree um eon bree eon! Um bree eon!"

"Vile vile plume," replied the vileplume calmly. "Plume vile _vile_ plume."

"Umbreon, use faint attack!"

"Vileplume, razor leaf," said Karen softly, her voice sounding slightly resigned.

Moon vanished but not before getting hit by several leaves. A moment later, she reappeared, slamming into the vileplume.

"Bite!"

"Petal dance."

Moon bit into one of the huge petals, but was forced off by the thousands of tiny petals which appeared from nowhere.

"Faint attack and crunch!"

The umbreon vanished again, momentarily escaping the flower petals, and sank her teeth into the vileplume a second time, this time on the body. The poison-type fainted.

Karen tiredly withdrew her pokemon, acting almost bored with the fight, then sent out a gengar.

The creature was clearly powerful, but nothing compared to the gigantic gengar Midnight had fought. If Moon was defeated, Ash could always choose her to finish the fight.

"Night shade."

"Bite it!"

Moon jumped at the ghost in order to bite, but the gengar simply floated out of the way. She jumped again and simply passed through it. The ghost laughed at her mockingly, then phased in and out a few times. Moon growled, using mean look to make it hold still, before lunging and using crunch. Her teeth tore through the gaseous form easily. The gengar tried to pull away, but she held on stubbornly, worrying at it and refusing to let go even when the spirit hit her with the black energy of night shade. Finally the ghost fainted.

The gengar was quickly withdrawn and the doors opened. Ash looked at Karen in confusion. "But-"

"None of my other pokemon will fight you," she said simply, so Ash stepped through the doorway.

Rather then coming to another room with his opponent right in front of him, Ash entered a long hallway decorated with statues of dragon pokemon. He walked quickly down the hall, until he came to a raised platform. Lance was standing on it, and behind him was the already open door.

Lance sent out a gyarados wordlessly.

Tsunami was too badly hurt to fight. Scizor couldn't be used in case the gyarados knew flamethrower or fire blast. Sandslash had already fainted. Moon was tired. Midnight should still be saved as long as possible. Sneasel was the only regular pokemon he had that was still in good condition.

"Go, Sneasel! Use slash!"

"Hydro pump!"

Sneasel slashed at the huge water pokemon a few times before it blasted her away with hydro pump.

"Now use metal claw!"

"Bite!"

Both of Sneasel's claws shined silver for an instant before hardening into steel. She danced around the giant creature, hitting it and then jumping away to dodge its continuing attempts to bite her. She wasn't doing much damage, but on the other hand, it wasn't doing any. Getting hit by the first water attack had taught her caution.

"Use thunderbolt! Slow it down!" yelled Lance.

"Ice beam, Sneasel!"

The gyarados flung bolts of lightning at her, but the swift dark type managed to dodge most of them while hitting the larger and slower gyarados with ice beams. Finally, with most of its lower body incased in ice, it was no longer able to attack Sneasel if she was behind it. She then hit it with a steady ice beam until its entire form was frozen.

Lance withdrew his gyarados and sent out a charizard.

"Return, Sneasel, go, Moon! Use headbutt!"

"Fly!"

Moon sprinted at the charizard but it flapped its huge wings and leapt into the air, effectively dodging the move and causing Moon to stumble and trip over her own paws as she tried to turn around.

Growling angrily at the snickering fire dragon, Moon jumped up as hard and high as she could, headbutting the flier in its stomach. The charizard faltered for a moment as it struggled to regain its breath. Furious, it sent a fire blast at the umbreon, who simply winked out with faint attack, reappearing on the fire pokemon's back. She quickly sank her teeth into the charizard's neck before it could toss her off.

The charizard faltered again, but this time did not recover in time and smashed into the ground. Moon was tossed to the side but she stood up again, looking only slightly worse for wear.

Lance was looking annoyed now as he sent out his first dragonite. Ash withdrew Darkmoon and sent out Sneasel again.

"Flamethrower!"

"Blizzard!"

The dragonite spewed fire but Sneasel leapt clear. She stiffened in midair as she summoned thousands of icicles and sent them flying at the dragon/flying pokemon. It shuddered under the intense cold and Sneasel, seeing her chance, quickly sent an ice beam at it to finish the job.

The second dragonite was much harder, withstanding three blizzards and an ice beam, as well as managing to hit Sneasel with a flamethrower before finally being taken out by an ice punch.

The third dragonite was **huge**. Its head brushed the high ceiling even though it stood slightly hunched. It hit Sneasel with fire blast before she could do anything, knocking her out. Ash sent out Moon who was quickly roasted before she could use faint attack to escape the flames.

There was no point in sending out Scizor who would have no better luck with the fire moves, and Tsunami was in no condition to fight. That left-

"Go, Midnight!"

Midnight appeared, looking puny beside the behemoth in front of her. She was not intimidated. She could sense that the strength of this dragonite was far closer to a Lesser then a Higher. It was a large, old, and powerful Lesser, nothing more.

"Midnight, use steel wing!"

The dark wolf charged the dragonite, her wings shifting and hardening into metal. She hit the dragonite on its lower leg, looking deceptively like an ant.

She was much too small for her wings to have the normal battering effect. But she had hit the dragonite hard, and something had to give. That something would not be her reinforced wings.

The huge pokemon roared as Midnight's wings broke through the tough, leathery skin and then cut into the muscle. It stumbled back, off balance. Unable to straighten up and balance properly, the attempt to shift its weight onto its uninjured legs failed and it fell.

Midnight beat her wings, rising up into the air. She threw her head back, letting out a cry and millions of ice shards buried themselves in the dragon pokemon's body. The dragonite struggled but was unable to maneuver inside of the great room. An icy wind swept over the area, weakening the dragonite further. The dragonite managed to twist onto its side, aiming its head at her and trying to hit her with its own ice attack, but Midnight dodged the beam with ease. She sent a second blizzard at the pokemon, then finished it with hyper beam. The dragonite fainted.

Lance grudgingly allowed Ash past, to record his pokemon in the hall of fame, and handed him a small badge signifying that he was a master.

Ash was still a little dazed when he walked back out into the sunlight, intending to leave before anyone showed up. He'd seen the interviews of new pokemon masters before – it usually seemed to amount to a herd of reporters shouting questions and shoving them – and he wanted no part in it.

A pokemon master. He was a pokemon master. He felt kind of numb, like he wasn't really there. He had actually done it. He had accomplished his dream.

A sudden ring distracted him from his thoughts. Reaching down, he picked up the cell phone his mom had demanded he take. "Hello?"

"Hello Ash, this is Professor Hemlock. Come see me immediately." Without waiting for an answer, the pokemon researcher hung up.


	39. The Lab

Took me forever to do this, I know. It's the second-to-last chapter.  
  
"You wanted to see me?" asked Ash.  
  
Prof. Hemlock nodded. "Yes. Or more specifically, Midnight. I've completed my preliminary experiments, and the data is - confusing, to say the least. Follow me."  
  
They walked deeper into the laboratory.  
  
The place was clean, with what Ash guessed was sophisticated equipment. Not that he'd know, but it was the feeling he got. The other feeling was a sense of vague unease. There was nothing he could pinpoint, exactly, simply something there. Everything was a dulled white or gray color, and as they walked down the hall they came upon cages.  
  
Not cages in the traditional sense, the way many experimental labs are. They weren't made of steel bars, nor were they stacked one on top of the other from the floor to the ceiling. They were more like enclosures in a zoo, the creatures in sterile rooms with a panel of glass on one wall to allow a person to look in. But of course, the pokemon on the other side were like nothing that could be found in a zoo.  
  
Most of the rooms were empty. Some weren't.  
  
The first was a spotted meowth. Its fur looked like a kaleidoscope of rainbow colors, and beyond that seemed normal at first glance. Yet as Ash walked by, he suddenly realized that it wasn't just lying down - it had no front legs, just paws. But before he could turn and take another look, Prof. Hemlock said irritably "Keep up!" before increasing his own pace.  
  
The next were a pair of espeons - or was that umbreons? On second glance, Ash realized his mistake. One was an all-black espeon, the other a white umbreon with gold bands. One seemed to be trying to get up but wasn't moving its back legs. The other was coughing horribly, looking as if it was dying. Ash couldn't hear through the glass, but its entire body was shuddering. Blood ringed its mouth and flecked its neck and upper chest.  
  
After that Ash saw what seemed to be a beedrill/scyther cross. It was green, with the face, legs and body of a scyther, and the arms and stingers of a beedrill. It had purple patches in the places that the scyther and beedrill parts met, and wasn't moving.  
  
Finally Prof. Hemlock stopped. Peering into the cage, Ash saw a brownish colored version of Midnight. It was emaciated. Its skin was stretched tightly over bone. After the rib cage, the skin simply hugged the underside of its spine. The creature did not seem to have the space for a stomach or intestines. It was shaking, curling into the tightest possible ball. After a moment, Ash realized it must be shivering.  
  
"When I attempt to clone the midnight, I get this thing. It's normal/flying, shows no unusual abilities, and can only use basic moves," he said, sounding slightly annoyed.  
  
"What-what's wrong with it?"  
  
"This one is diabetic, missing a pancreas. It's the only one to survive more then a day. The other clones were more severely damaged, missing lungs or skin or limbs."  
  
"Why aren't you doing anything for it?"  
  
Prof. Hemlock looked at Ash with irritation. "I am, why do you think it's still alive? Feeding it would only kill it faster. By starving the creature, it lives longer."  
  
Ash had no idea what Prof. Hemlock was talking about. "But why don't you just give it insulin?"  
  
"I'm not a paramedic. How would I know the dosage? Besides, there's not a point to keeping it alive indefinitely. It was a failure. It will survive long enough to complete my testing, and beyond that, what really matters?"  
  
"But-"  
  
"The real question is why the clones are always normal-types. I need the original midnight to compare them with."  
  
Ash grabbed the masterball with his hand, but didn't give it to Prof. Hemlock.  
  
"What are you going to do to her?"  
  
"A few tests. What do you care? It won't be injured."  
  
"But-"  
  
Prof. Hemlock scowled at Ash, then grabbed the masterball from his hand. Ash tried to hold on to it, and the button was pressed twice. The ball popped open.  
  
Light formed into Midnight, who lunged for the professor as soon as she formed, then bounded off.  
  
Ash didn't bother to check the man's pulse. He was clearly dead. People don't live long with their guts lying on the floor beside them. He threw up, then stumbled off in the direction Midnight had taken.  
  
  
  
I hate labs.  
  
The spotted meowth without front legs has a real-world counterpart. Anyone know what it is?  
  
Starving diabetics does make them live longer. Back before insulin, diabetics would be locked up and fed almost nothing. By doing this they might live one or two years. A lot of them killed themselves despite the best efforts of their keepers. 


End file.
